Mile Gully turn heads
Mandeville , Manchester — Seven schools from south-central Jamaica, led by Clarendon College and St Elizabeth Technical High (STETHS), qualified for the quarterfinals of the ISSA/Wata daCosta Cup football competition as the second round came to an end on Saturday.
Clarendon College and STETHS apart, the others from the south central region are Maggotty High, Mile Gully High, former champions Glenmuir High, former Ben Francis knock-out winners Lennon High, and Manchester High.
The seven will join the other nine schools in the hunt for titles in the remaining six weeks of the schoolboys football season.
The 16 schools will be separated into four groups of four for the quarterfinals and, after three games each, the group winners will advance to the semi-finals of the daCosta Cup. Along with the second-placed teams will play the group winners in the ISSA all-island knock-out against the Manning Cup qualifiers.
The third-and fourth-placed teams will then play for the Ben Francis KO.
Mile Gully, the lowest -seeded team in the second round at number 32, will be strutting as they created the biggest upset of the competition so far by knocking out defending champions Rusea’s High on the away goals rule.
Mile Gully won the first leg 2-1, then Rusea’s High won the return in Lucea 3-2 for a 4-4 aggregate as the Baron Watson coached team advanced based on their two away goals scored.
Clarendon College were in a no-nonsense mood as they beat Green Island 5-0 twice in a three-day span to get into the quarterfinals on Saturday.
STETHS got the better of long-time rivals Vere Technical 6-1 on aggregate to book their place in the top 16 as Manchester High also had the same aggregate score over Spalding High.
Glenmuir High made history on Friday by becoming the first school to make progress on away goals rule when they drew 0-0 against St Mary Technical at Juici Park following a 1-1 draw at Highgate on Wednesday.
Lennon got the better of Little London 2-1 on aggregate, while Maggotty High also advanced on away goals after their 1-1 draw in the second leg at Elleston Wakeland Centre in Falmouth against Cedric Titus after the first game played at STETHS had ended in a 0-0 draw.
