Adrian Frater, News Editor

WESTERN BUREAU:

BEN FRANCIS Cup champions Frome Technical High School added an extra bit of momentum to their ambitious bid for the rural double yesterday when they came from behind twice to defeat Denbigh 3-2 in their first-round Group Two quarter-final fixture at Brooks Park in Mandeville.

In a game in which the Boysie Nicholson-coached Frome team showed a lot of depth and character, they got their goals from Delano Rankine, Leroy Taylor and Sedane McCreath.

The Denbigh team, which surprised Frome in the early stages with their speed and composure, scored through Jermaine Christian and Akeem Hunter.

"It was another gutsy perform-ance from the boys today as they showed a lot of character in coming from behind twice before moving on to win the game," said Nicholson, who is hunting his second daCosta Cup title with the Frome team. "This is a good way to start the quarter-finals and we are very happy."

Optimism

Despite their loss, an optimistic Mortimer Bennett, the assistant coach of Denbigh, said he expected them to bounce back in their next two games against Titchfield and Bog Walk as he believes they are good enough to take one of the group's two semi-final places.

"We allowed the Frome Technical team too much space today and I believe it cost us the game," said Bennett. "We nonetheless remain optimistic that we will still make the semi-finals as we are quite confident that we will be able to take maximum six points from our next two games."

Beaten Ben Francis Cup finalists Clarendon College also made an encouraging start to their quarter-final campaign in Group One, carving out an exciting 2-0 win over Rusea's, who were totally outgunned on the lush St. Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) ground.

Clarendon College's coach, Kevin Williams, whose team scored through Gregory Lewis and Nefta Stewart, was elated with his side's win, saying he considered it the perfect way to start the quarter-final round.

"It feels really good to beat a team that is coached by two illustrious coaches such as Anthony 'Follies' Williams and Emerson 'Diggy' Henry," said Williams. "In addition, it is also good to move into a new phase of a competition with a win as that basically puts you on the right footing."

Good game

In the other Group One game played at Carder Park, Bog Walk turned in a surprisingly good show to hold the more illustrious Titchfield to a 0-0 draw in a game they were expected to lose.

"I thought we played very well as one of our players got a red card but we still managed to come away with a point," said Vincent Mitchell, a member of the Bog Walk coaching staff. "We will now be looking to improve on this performance in our next two games."

In the second of the two Group Two games at Brancourt, in Clarendon, Glenmuir and Garvey Maceio battled to a 0-0 stalemate in a game coach Jefrey Hewitt, who conditioned Garvey Maceo, thought his team should have won.

"I thought we created the better chances and had we displayed better form before the goal I am sure we would have taken all three points," said coach Hewiit. "We will just have to go back to the drawingboard and try to get it right for our next game."

TODAY'S RESULTS