CATHERINE HALL, St James

For the second time in three years Cornwall College will seek to end the Corporate Area stranglehold on the Inter-Secondary Schools Sport Association Champions Cup all-island knockout when they take on former champions Jamaica College in the final at the Montego Bay Sports Complex on Saturday, starting at 6:00pm.

Manning Cup teams have won all four previous editions of the Champions Cup, and while it will be the third year that teams from both the Corporate and rural areas have contested the final, Cornwall College’s Coach Dr Dean Weatherly thinks it’s time the monopoly ends.

Last Friday, Cornwall College ended St George’s College’s season- long unbeaten run, beating them 2-0, while Jamaica College hammered St Elizabeth Technical 4-0 — both games at Sabina Park — to qualify for the first Champions Cup final to be played outside of Kingston.

Saturday’s game will be the third time the schools will meet, all at the Montego Bay Sports Complex — a repeat of their 2014 first-round game and the Olivier Shield two years later in 2016, both won 2-1 by Jamaica College.

Cornwall College were the first daCosta Cup team to qualify for the final in 2016, but lost 1-0 to Wolmer’s Boys’, while St Elizabeth Technical were beaten 0-3 by Kingston College last year.

“This is the third-straight year a daCosta Cup team will be playing in the final. In 2016 we thought we would be the team to break the urban stranglehold on the title, and we are ready again for the challenge,” said Dr Weatherly earlier this week.

While Cornwall College will carry the hopes of all the rural area teams, Weatherly told the Jamaica Observer West on Monday, “The way we think is that we have been together as a group since the first practice in June, and we are not trying to take on that responsibility of pleasing everyone as that carries a burden in itself. We are playing for self first, school, then our community in that order, and we are trying to keep the players focussed.”

Cornwall would have played Frome Technical in the semi-finals of the ISSA/Wata daCosta Cup yesterday and Weatherly says there are no preferences which of the titles are more important.

“None at all! We started the season aiming at all the titles we can win, and we are still in the race for all, so we will take them one day, one game at a time.”

Cornwall College are unbeaten in 18 games, 15 in the daCosta Cup and are in a period of the season were every game is an elimination game, win or go home.

Dr Weatherly said they learned lessons from 2016 when they were chasing all titles.

“In 2016, we had a lot of injuries and also the frequency of games did not allow for proper recovery. Also in 2016 the team was not as mentally tough as this team, and this is a significant part of the preparation that we have cleared,” said coach Weatherly.

He contends that with the lack of ‘star players’ on this team, they play as a unit, “with guts and heart and the desire and will to produce results.”

Aiden Jokomba has scored 19 goals so far to lead Cornwall College, three coming in the last two games in the Champions Cup, and has struck up a fearsome two-some with Shavon McDonald who he has played alongside in the daCosta Cup team over the last three years.

Solano Birch has been quiet for the last three games and has not scored at all in the Champions Cup, but played a major role is helping Cornwall to get this far.

Two players on the Jamaica College team that will be familiar with the Cornwall College team are Richard Thompson and Calwayne Allen who played for Herbert Morrison Technical and St James High respectively, and they will hope to deny the daCosta Cup team the title.

In the Champions Cup, Jamaica College beat Mile Gully 4-0 in the first-round, then came from a goal down to beat Holy Trinity before last Friday’s big win over St Elizabeth Technical.

Cornwall College got the better of Wolmers Boys 3-2 on penalty kicks in the first-round then won their last two games 2-0 over Camperdown High and St George’s College.