Honours were shared on Friday’s opening day of the ISSA/Wata Champions Cup quarter-finals after two-time champions Jamaica College of the Manning Cup and first-time qualifiers Ocho Rios High of the daCosta Cup both scored 2-0 wins to earn a place in the semi-finals.
Despite playing with ten men for 76 minutes, Jamaica College punished a wasteful McGrath High, while Ocho Rios did the same to St Catherine High School.
Dyllan John scored a second-half brace for Jamaica College as McGrath High failed to take advantage of a red card shown to goalkeeper Taywayne Lynch for handling the ball outside the 18-yard box in the 14th minute.
Lynch’s replacement, Adriano Kitson, failed to inspire confidence after losing the ball on several occasions. This put his team under pressure, but the McGrath High players could not capitalize.
John made them pay. He gave Jamaica College the lead in the 60th minute and added a second in time, both goals coming from sweeping counterattacks.
Ocho Rios continued their magical season with Keanu Reid scoring a goal in either half to punish a wasteful St Catherine High, who controlled the first 30 minutes of the game and created several scoring chances.
Ocho Rios made them pay when Reid completed a swift counterattack by beating goalkeeper Omarion Brown with a shot into the far left corner of the goal in the 42nd minute.
As expected, St Catherine threw everything into attack at the start of the second half but left their defense open for another counterattack. This time, Reid went to his left and lured Brown off his line before firing into the far corner in the 55th minute.
Ocho Rios took over the game and should have added more goals, but Brown pulled off several saves to keep the scores respectable.
