Kingston College (KC) turned in a virtuoso display in whipping St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) 3-0 to lift the new ISSA FLOW All-Island Super Cup on Saturday at Sabina Park and pocketed $1m.

It was KC’s first hold on the Super Cup and it couldn't have been at a better time to end their season on a high after losing the Walker Cup final and being knocked out at the Manning Cup semi-final stage.

The top eight teams contested the Super Cup across both Walker and Ben Francis Cups. KC, who started as favourites duly obliged. They knocked off Ruseas’s High 4-1, Jamaica College 2-1 and now they put away STETHS 3-0 and proved that they are indeed a high quality team.

KC now joins JC, St George’s College and Wolmer’s Boys as winners of the “Champions League” of schoolboy football that had its genesis in 2014.

Star of the show for the Famed Purples was Rashawn Mackison who grabbed a hat-trick scoring in the 7th, 44th and 82nd minutes and sent the many KC fans into delirium as they celebrated with loud drums, horns and anything that took the decibel level to a crescendo.

Mackison, who also scored a three timer against Ruseas’s, won the Super Cup Golden Boot award with 6 goals and collected a cool $50,000 courtesy of Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica, ltd.

Mackison said despite the hurtful semi-final loss in the Manning Cup, KC had to lift their game and that they did. “It was unfortunate that we didn't win that game on Wednesday but we knew that we had a FLOW Cup final, so we had to come out here, refocus and do our best,” said Mackinson, who is also the top scorer in the Manning Cup with 19 goals.

“This mean a lot to me. Before I took the pitch I told myself I am not going to leave this pitch without scoring a goal today and I got three so I am very grateful for it,” said Mackison, who plays for Harbour View FC in the Red Stripe National Premier League, Jamaica’s top flight football league.

It was a dominant display by KC and they continued the dominance of the corporate area teams over the rural area teams and truly showed where the power of schoolboy football lies.

It was a fitting send off for five of the KC outstanding players that will be leaving school in captain Javain Brown, his defensive partner Davian Shakes, the outstanding right back Trey Bennett and left back Antoneil Mullings along with midfield general Fabian Grant.

Winning coach Ludlow Bernard paid tribute to his team after they lift themselves like a phoenix rising from the ashes. “I am very privileged to have worked with a group of boys for the past three years that really embodied the richness of the motto “The Brave may fall But Never Yield,” said Bernard.

It was exemplified with young Mullings who was down for a while and there were attempts to change him but he said ’no coach I am not coming off this is my last game for the season. My last game for KC, I am not coming off’. That embodies the KC spirit. Everybody gave of the best. Everybody determined not to go home empty handed this season,” Bernard pointed out.

For STETHS, it was another disappointment but truth be told they were outclassed by a much better and talented team. Demar James, Chris-Andrew Dixon, Alex Thompson, Clifton Woodbine all tried desperately to stay in the game and coach Omar Wedderburn was left a dejected man.

“As you could see I don't think the defenders carried out the instructions. Working in training coming into the match I was expecting a different result but this is more heartache. Right now I feel like a car that have a head on crash into a wall,” said Wedderburn.

“I think I need a vacation to reflect on the season and see where I went wrong. Not the players,” he emphasized.

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The reign of Corporate Area schools in the ISSA/FLOW Super Cup competition, the self-styled ‘Champions League’ of schoolboys football was extended on Friday night after Wolmers Boys edged Cornwall College 1-0 in an epic clash of first time finalists.

Alphonso Gooden’s injury time goal was the difference between two teams that played disciplined defence for most of the game while both creating good scoring chances.

Wolmers who added their names to Jamaica College and St Georges College as champions of the all-island Knock out competition, took home the $1million prize and trophy while goalkeeper Shemar Jemison was named MVP and took home the award named in honour of the late St George’s player Dominic James.

Jemison allowed one goal in regulation in the entire tournament.

Despite being held scoreless for the first time this season, Cornwall College’s Jourdaine Fletcher won the Golden Boot award after scoring seven goals including two hat tricks, against Denham Town in the first round and against Clarendon College in the semi-finals.

Cornwall College dominated the second half and should have scored on at last one occasion but for a tight Wolmers defence and poor finishing.

Fletcher had two really good chances but each time Jemison was equal to them while substitute Shavon McDonald should have buried one in the 75th minute but skied the ball with the wide open goal at his mercy.

When it was looking like the game as headed to extra time, Gooden and Wolmers took full advantage of a mistake in the Cornwall defence and he snapped up the loose ball and beat Cornwall’s goalkeeper Jamario Hines low to his right hand side

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Jamaica College’s Tyreke MaGee netted his 17th and 18th goals of the season as they outscored a stubborn Dinthill Technical 3-2 in the first game of the Flow Cup Quarter Final doubleheader last evening. It was a spectacular man-of-the-match performance from MaGee who not only scored two goals but had a hand in the third. His display proved why he is touted by many as the best schoolboy footballer in Jamaica.

Even though Magee starred the show, for the most part, the killer instinct distinctively oozed from Dinthill’s Kaheem Parris who showed great skill and pace early in the encounter as he wriggled and wheeled his way into the JC armor like a twisting dagger. However, his attempts to penetrate the JC back line proved futile. The JC defenders kept slamming the door shut, to the delight of their supporters, despite the fact that Dinthill was the more threatening team, outshooting them 2-1.

The game evolved into a see-saw battle as both teams sought the opening goal. JC, however, showed more poise, and in the 31st minute, they reaped their reward. Thomas picked up the ball and eased past a Dinthill defender just on the left of the 18-yard box before taking a shot on goal. The technique was almost flawless as he opened up his body and dexterously swung the side of his right foot into the ball. The crowd waited with bated breath, but the ball whistled inches over the apex of the crossbar and far post. The crowd, nevertheless, rapturously applauded what would have been a spectacular goal.

A minute later, The Blues drew first blood as they launched another attack through Maliek Howell who raced into acres of space on the right flank. The unmarked Howell had an eternity to float a searching cross towards Norman Campbell who galloped into space on the inside left of the box, chested down the ball and rolled it back to the top of the 18-yard box to find a wide-open Tyreke MaGee. The defenders were in disarray as MaGee drove a scorching grass cutter which ricocheted like a pinball off the left arm of the diving Demero Hill and into the net. The JC supporters went ballistic in celebration, banging the aluminum out of the seats of the grandstand as their team went ahead 1-0.

Dinthill responded in the 42nd-minute with an equalizer through Andre Fletcher. Fletcher got a free kick almost dead centre of the goal atop the 18-yard box. He made no mistake in dispatching a high curling shot over the JC wall and almost into the roof of the net as the ball eluded the outstretched fingers of Khari Williams. The Dinthill supporters went berserk as the blares of vuvuzelas saturated the atmosphere. The goal not only electrified the stadium but also the increased the intensity of the game. This was Fletcher’s second bite of the cherry but the only one he really sank his teeth into. He had gotten a glorious opportunity moments before, but his effort was awfully miscued as he tried to fire home off his weaker right foot. The first half ended 1-1.

Just moments after referee Cordella Samuels’ whistle signaled the start of the second half, there was a worrying sign for Dinthill. The heart and soul of their team, Kaheem Parris, became physically ill, forcing the referee to pause the game momentarily. Parris left the pitch to the dismay of the Dinthill contingent, but moments later he returned after receiving treatment, to re-ignite the spirit of the team.

The Blues got a go-ahead chance almost immediately when clever ‘running off the ball’ by the JC team allowed Thomas to lose his marker. He found himself in yards of space behind the Dinthill defense, one-on-one with goalkeeper Demero Hill. The diminutive Hill flew off his line like a sprinter out of his blocks and came up big, denying Thomas any goal-scoring glory, and the score remained 1-1.

Jamaica College broke the deadlock in the 58th minute, once again through MaGee. Tevin Rochester held the ball on the right flank and beckoned for MaGee, with his back to the goal, to come short of an apparent one-two combination play. Instead, MaGee turned adroitly to his right and towards goal, leaving the bamboozled defender frozen like a scarecrow in a cornfield and rifled a hip height shot which bounced just before the outstretched arm of Hill to find its way into the back of the net.

Nevertheless, Dinthill was by no means discouraged. They mustered all the strength from Linstead and clawed their way back into the game once again with an equalizer from Antonio Roberts in the 66th minute. The buildup had Parris’ footprints all over it as he seemingly threw on a jetpack as if he was heading to Paris. He flew down the right wing and past his marker as if he was not there. He then played a picture-perfect ball into the penalty area, finding Roberts who side-footed it into the goal. The lightning-fast counterattack was so well executed that the discombobulated JC defense did not know what hit them.

The game seemed destined for a draw as two determined teams threw hammer and tongs at each other while also defending resolutely. However, in the 75th minute, Demero Hill made a perilous mistake that led to Dinthill’s demise. The Blues won a free kick on the far side of the left flank which MaGee floated into the 18-yard box. Goalkeeper Hill took charge of his penalty area and sprang forward for what appeared to be a routine training ground catch. But the floater was deceptive and he mishandled the ball. Like a shark smelling blood in the water, substitute Gavin Thorpe gobbled up the ball and bundled it into the net making it 3-2, JC. On the one hand, the event sent shock waves throughout the Dinthill contingent. On the other hand, The Blues frantically celebrated their gift.

As the clock wound down, Dinthill showed great determination as they rattled the padlock of the JC’s defensive door. But coach Coley smartly inserted more defensive players to shut out Dinthill’s huffing and puffing. Even with 4 minutes of added time, Dinthill could not break the seal and so the game ended 3-2 in favour of JC.

In the second game of the doubleheader, the prolific Rushawn Mackison bagged three goals as Kingston College battered Rusea’s High 4-1. With the quarterfinals concluded, all roads now lead to Sabina Park for the semi-finals next week Saturday where Jamaica College will once again meet arch-rivals Kingston College. The other semi-final will see the sole survivors of the rural area, St. Elizabeth Technical, match up against Calabar High.

 
Article by Alex Bent

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St George's College whipped Jamaica College (JC) 4-0 to win the Flow ISSA Super Cup and walked away with $1m at the National Stadium on Saturday.

Alex Marshall, easily the best schoolboy this season, scored twice in the 14th and 58th minutes pushing his goalscoring tally to 23 in all competition. It was also his sixth goal in the Super Cup earning him the Golden Boot award.

It was a magnificent display of attacking fluid football by the Georgians in front of a packed Stadium. Marshall, who was assign a marker by JC in his National Under-17 teammate, Ajeanie Talbott, proved illusive throughout and was involved in three of St George’s College’s goals.

Just after JC missed the first chance of the game in the third minute when Chevaun Crooks kicked wide from just outside the box, Marshall, eluded Talbott and was fouled in the box and earned a penalty.

Messam Jnr, the son of former Reggae Boy Gregory Messam Snr, easily converted the spot in the fifth minute. Then just nine minute later, Marshall was inexplicably left unmark at the far post and he made no mistake in the 14th minute.

Marshall was at it again and just a few minutes after turning Talbott inside out, Talbott clattered into Marshall once again and picked up his second yellow card was dismissed in the 52nd minute. From the resulting freekick, Ronaldo Watson curled in a beauty making it 3-0 in the 53rd minute.

Marshall was not finished and he combined well with Akeem Shelton and fired home from an angle riving the final nail into JC’s coffin.

JC, the dethroned champions, walked away with $375,000 that they accumulated for their three wins and second place. Wolmer’s Boys defeated St Jago 2-1 to finish third.

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