The Jamaica College juggernaut rolled all over Mona High in the ISSA/FLOW Manning Cup on Tuesday, as they steamrolled their neighbours 5-0 courtesy of a brace from captain Maleik Howell, a brace from Tevin Rochester and an injury time strike from Shaniel Thomas at their Old Hope Road base.
Having whipped Donald Quarrie 9-0 on Saturday, it was a matter of how many the Miguel Coley boys would be able to bag as they increase their strangle hold on a group they were expected to dominate from day one.
Despite dominating possession from the opening whistle, it took the over lapping efforts and instincts of the captain Howell to give the “True Blue” the breakthrough in the 30th minute. But while the rain in the Mona area was consistent, the goals were not, as JC failed to add to their tally for the rest of the half, denied by the stiflying Mona defence who continued to maintain 11 players behind the ball.
Mona seemingly gained some confidence from not being overrun in the first half and started to show more of themselves in the second half, led by their captain Diandre Folkes.
Folkes came close to getting a breakthrough for Mona when his shot from the left side of the area smacked against the crossbar and rebounded in to play.
That was the closest the visitors would come as shortly after it became the Tevin Rochester show. Being played in the unusual position of centre forward, the lanky player used his size and strength to create his own goal scoring chance to fire home his first goal in the 78th minute.
Rochester was at it again in the 85th minute, stroking the ball home to make it 3-0 with five minutes to go, knocking the stuffing out of Mona who were dead on their feet.
Howell then got his second of the game in the 89th minute when Rochester laid the ball into his path for the JC skipper to fire home into the far corner of the goal.
A shell shocked Mona was clearly playing for the final whistle by now but they had to take the ball out of the net one more time when Thomas, who was a late substitute, got his name on the scoresheet with the last kick of the game, in the third minute of added time.
Miguel Coley was more pleased with the first half than the second, despite the majority of goals coming in the second stanza.
“I am especially pleased with the first half because we had lots of counter attacks which is what I wanted to see. (Tahja) Reynolds gave us good orientation in midfield so we were able to move the ball well. The team is getting better and better and the winning mindset is important to have.
“We have a tough away game against STATHS on Friday, but we are taking it one game at a time in this group,” Coley concluded.
Mona coach Kevin Williams admitted that his team was overmatched against the defending champions.
“We came here to nullify the JC midfield and we did that for the most part. But JC got more clear cut chances than we did so the result was never really in doubt. On the balance of play they were the better team. We have a very young team and we are on a three year programme. We can’t compete against JC right now.”
While JC was drubbing Mona, STATHS remained on their coattails with a 1-0 win over Bridgeport High to remain level on 14 points and almost guarantee themselves of at least second spot in the group.
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