Excelsior, KC clash in feature

Jermaine Lannaman, Gleaner Writer

Title hopefuls Kingston College (KC) and Jamaica College (JC) will attempt to move one step closer to a semi-final berth in the ISSA/Gatorade/ Digicel Manning Cup when they play Excelsior and St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) in second-round Group K action at Constant Spring today.

KC, who are hoping to break a 25-year title drought, will play Excelsior in the feature game at 3 p.m., while at 1 p.m. defending champions JC will take on STATHS.

"This KC team is on a mission, and once we continue and improve the way we have been doing we should continue to do well," said coach Trevor 'Jumpy' Harris.

"We now have three points, and with only the winners of the group sure to advance we need to collect as many as we can, so we look forward to today's match against Excelsior."

KC, who edged a spirited STATHS 3-2 on Tuesday, lead the group on goal difference over JC, who clipped Excelsior 1-0.

In the hunt for all three points in the feature game, KC will once again be hoping that their 'big three', central defender Jamie Hyde, midfielder Jorginho James, and forward, national Under-17 representative Romario Williams, will come good.

Excelsior, on the other hand, will be expecting a lot from their national Under-17 representative, midfielder Zhelano Barnes.

Meanwhile, two other games will be played today with action also taking place in Group J.

In the first game of what will be a Spanish Town double-header, title favourites Charlie Smith High will square off with Spanish Town High at 1 p.m., while at 3 p.m. Bridgeport High and Waterford High will meet in the battle of Portmore's best.

Charlie Smith, who defeated Waterford 3-1 in their opening fixture, lead the group with three points, two more than Bridgeport and Spanish Town, who played to a goalless draw in their game.

round-robin format

The second round is divided into four groups with four teams each, who will play each other in a round-robin format. The winners of each group will advance to the semi-finals.

"It should be a good matchup, but despite that I am pretty confident that we can collect all three points," said Charlie Smith coach Jerome Waite.

"This Charlie Smith team is growing from strength to strength, and they have shown a lot of improvement in all departments.

"All we need to do is is just take charge of the game as quickly as possible, and put away our chances early," said Waite.

Charlie Smith will be led by the competition's leading goalscorer, Michaelos Martin, and inspirational captain and playmaker Javoni Simms, while Spanish Town will bank on outstanding goalkeeper Antwain Stephens, and key defender and captain Vinroy Hayles.