Youthful KC suffer 4-0 defeat to Hydel

HYDEL HIGH School placed an early dent in the aspirations of a 17th schoolboy football Manning Cup title for Kingston College (KC) yesterday with a 4-0 victory at Royal Lakes field.

The North Street-based KC played from the 20th minute with 10 players, with referee Odette Hamilton sending O’Neil Bryan to the dressing room early for a hard aerial challenge on Damaine Smith, who was on his way to the goal.

Kialand Smith had earlier provided a 12th-minute goal to Hydel after clearance blunders by Ronaldinho Richards and the goalkeeper gifted him an open goal from the edge of the 18-yard box, which he accepted with a firm, grounded pass into the net.

Ronaldo Barrett added to KC’s woes in the 45th minute when he powered past the goallie inside the six-yard box after another failed clearance from a swerving corner. The ball landed perfectly for the unmarked Barrett.

The wounded KC went further behind early in the second half, with KC’s defence again leaving D’Sean Henry unmarked on the far side inside the box, and he collected the ball and fired over the hapless goalkeeper in the 52nd minute.

Smith compounded KC’s indignity by hammering home from a quick counter-attack after one of KC’s limited forays into the Hydel penalty box.

Both teams failed to play fluent football, with Hydel dominating KC territorially, locking them into their defensive third, especially in the second stanza, when the Ferry-based institution performed better while possessing the ball.

Hydel’s assistant coach, Oshane Tomlinson, was happy for the win, despite admitting they lacked cohesion on the field.

“I think we played in patches overall. It could have been a much better performance, but I give thanks for the three points.

“We didn’t start with our intended 11. That threw off the chemistry of the team. We did overcome that challenge. We didn’t play the football as we wanted. We were chasing the game and, when they went down to 10, we were still all over the place. Nonetheless, we will come again for a much better performance next time,” Tomlinson said.

KC’s coach, Vassell Reynolds, believes his youthful aggregation performed creditably after going down to 10 men.

“For the most part, we didn’t do too badly. We started a little shakily and gifted Hydel two goals. We improved somewhere towards the end of the first half and put up a good show and kept the score at 2-0.

“It was always going to be a long shot against a very experienced Hydel team, going down a man short early in the game, especially since we showcased 10 Under-16 players,” Reynolds said.

Yesterday’s Results

Hydel 4-0 KC

Spanish Town 2-2 Meadowbrook

Cumberland 1-3 KT

Cedar Grove 1-2 Tarrant

Clan Carthy 0-3 Excelsior

Bridgeport 0-6 STATHS

Edith Dalton 7-0 St Mary’s College

St Catherine 3-0 Innswood

Wolmer’s 6-3 Donald Quarrie

Calabar 1-0 Penwood