Frome lead charge into quarters

Adrian Frater, News Editor
WESTERN BUREAU:

FROME TECHNICAL, Rusea's High and Dinthill Technical were among the seven teams that booked qualifying places in the quarter-final round of the ISSA/Pepsi/Digicel daCosta Cup following yesterday's final round of inter-zone games.

The others teams into the quarter-finals are Spalding, who topped Group Three with a 2-0 win against Clarendon College; Lennon, who drew 1-1 with Christiana to win Group Four; St Thomas Technical, who clipped St Mary High 2-1 to top Group Five; and Paul Bogle, who took one of the two best second-placed team places after beating Annotto Bay 4-0.

Final slot

The final slot will be a toss-up between Ben Francis champions St James High, who clobbered Cedric Titus 4-0 to finish in second place in Group One behind Frome with six points and Lacovia, who had their Group Three game against Bellefield rained out. In the replay, Lacovia will need to win by five clear goals to advance ahead of St James.

Among the high-profile teams that fell by the wayside yesterday were former champions Cornwall College, the competition's most successful side with 11 titles, two-time champions Glenmuir, Clarendon College and St Elizabeth Technical.

Must-win situation

In the Group Two game at Jarrett Park between Rusea's, who started the game on four points and faced a must-win situation, and Grange Hill, who came in with an outside chance on three points, the Rusea's team dominated and should have won by a much wider margin.

They got the desired result courtesy of a double strike by their leading goalscorer Tremaine Perry, who lifted his season tally to 11.

"We came here today knowing that we needed to win to either top the group or grab a best second-place position and there was no way we were going to lose," said Anthony 'Follies' Williams, the coach of Rusea's. "We are now heading back to the drawing board to get ready for the quarter-finals," Williams said.

After dominating without success for most of the early stages of the game, Rusea's finally took the lead in the 30th minute. Perry broke free out of the midfield and with the Grange Hill defenders chasing in vain, he calmly fired past the advancing goalkeeper, making the halftime score 1-0.

Brilliant passes

Rusea's sealed their quarter-final place in the 66th minute when the ever alert Perry exchanged brilliant passes with Godfrey Cunningham on the edge of the penalty area before turning goalwards and firing in, making the final score 2-0.

In the second game of the Jarrett Park doubleheader, St James, knowing they had an outside chance of advancing either through a Frome loss, which could have given them group honours; or as best second-place finishers; went in for the kill against Cedric Titus.

In the end, despite winning 4-0 through goals by Nicholi Barrett (three) and Randy Myrie, St James will have only themselves to blame if they fail to advance as they squandered enough chances to have gotten the goals that would have taken them past Paul Bogle for the best second-place slot already decided.

YESTERDAY'S RESULTS

Frome 2 Godfrey Stewart 1, Marcus Garvey 0 Cornwall College 0, Spalding 2 Clarendon College 0, Manchester 1 STETHS 0, Old Harbour 3 Bog Walk 3, Lennon 1 Christiana 1, St Thomas Technical 2 St Mary Technical 1, Paul Bogle 4 Annotto Bay 0, Rusea's 2 Grange Hill 0, St James 4 Cedric Titus 0, Lacovia vs Bellefield - rained out, Dinthill 1 Glenmuir 0.