Adrian Frater, News Editor and Rasbert Turner, Freelance Writer

Herbert Morrison's Alex Stone (closest to camera) skips over a tackle from a St. James High School defender during yesterday's daCosta Cup game between the two schools in Montego Bay. Herbert Morrison won the game 1-0. - Photo by adrian frater

FORMER CHAMPIONS Herbert Morrison, Frome Technical, Munro College, St. Elizabeth Technical (STETHS) and Glenmuir were among the winners yesterday as action continued in the 2006 ISSA/Pepsi/JN daCosta Cup competition.

STETHS sounded a strong warning to the other contenders in Zone E when they registered the biggest win of the day, a whopping 9-0 trouncing of Maggotty High.

Last year's beaten finalists, Glenmuir, were also in fine form in Zone I, handing Vere Technical a 4-1 defeat while Frome Technical, the first Westmoreland team to win the coveted title, thrashed Cambridge 5-0.

Rusea's, who were tipped to dominate Zone B, suffered an early setback as they were surprisingly held to a 1-1 draw by Cambridge High. Munro College's 2-0 win against Lacovia in a Zone E showdown was somewhat surprising as they were expected to win by a much wider margin.

In the Montego Bay Zone A derby between Herbert Morrison and St. James, the former dominated the early action but poor finishing let them down. They wasted the easiest of chances in the sixth minute when Gerald Duncan pounced on a rebound inside the goal area but shot wide. After surviving a bad miss by St. James in the 26th minute when Andre Bernard fired wide of an empty goal, Herbert Morrison wasted back-to-back changes in the 32nd and 38th minutes. Firstly, Akhail Lee nodded wide from six yards and secondly, Ronique Francis booted straight at the goalkeeper from six yards. The half ended 0-0.

Missed chance

St. James missed a glorious chance to take lead lead four minutes into the second half when Andre Bernard capitalised a defensive blunder but hesitated and then, under pressure, fired into the waiting hands of the goalkeeper.

With action swinging from end to end, Herbert Morrison took the lead in a 66th minute. A well-floated cross found substitute Tajay Higgins unmarked before the goal and his powerful header gave the goalkeeper no chance.

Meanwhile, the daCosta Cup encounter at Charlemont High saw the hosts emerge 1-0 victors over Ewarton courtesy of a Ryan Kirby goal. The game, which was played on a soggy field, saw both teams playing evenly for most of the first half until Kirby scored after beating his marker in the 43rd minute.

After halftime, Charlemont, buoyed by the one-goal margin, started to make inroads through the efforts of Kurby, Andrew Chambers, Adrian Minott and company. However, due to faulty finishes the score did not change.

Ewarton came into their own in the latter stages of the game, primarily through the work of Calvin Dunn and Lincoln Green, but they could not breach the Charlemont defence.

Andrew Ingram, Ewarton's coach, said his team was not fit.

"We played competitively in the first half, however, from when we conceded the goal, the team seems to have become downhearted and we lost our sting," Ingram said.

"We tried to regain it in the latter part of the game but it was too late," he said. The coach of Charlemont, Clement 'Rass' Dawes, said he was not satisfied with the win.

"We should have won the game by at least 4-0, but we did not capitalise on all the chances. We also lost two of our better players and I will be going back to the drawingboard with the team to do better next time," Dawes said. Both teams will play on Saturday. Ewarton host Dinthill while Charlemont will play away at Glengoffe.

SCORES

Zone A: Herbert Morrison 1 St. James High 0

Zone B: Frome 5 Knockalva 0, Cambridge 1 Rusea's 1 Zone C: Grange Hill 3 Maud McLeod 1 Zone E: STETHS 9 Maggotty 0, Munro 2 Lacovia 0, Black River 1 Newell 0 Zone I: Glenmuir 4 Vere 1 Zone J: Charlemont 1 Ewarton 0, McGrath 1 Dinthill 0 Zone K: Tacky 1 Islington 1, Brimmervale 1 St. Mary High 1

TODAY'S GAMES

Zone L: Happy Grove vs Yallahs, Fair Prospect vs Port Antonio, Paul Bogle vs St. Thomas Technical, Titchfield vs Seaforth.