DEFENDING champions Waterhouse FC crushed Cavalier FC 5-1 in the 2019 Jamaica Football Federation (JFF)/Lascelles Employees & Partners Co-Operative Credit Union Women’s Premier League mid-season final played at UWI/JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence playing field on Saturday.

Davia Richards in the 11th and 15th minutes, and Davia Smith in the 49th and 75th minutes led the way for the victors, with Kacey-Ann Murray scoring the other goal in the 7th minute. Richards has now scored 10 goals this season.

Meanwhile, Cavalier’s leading scorer Rena Gordon netted the consolation goal for her team in the 74th minute from the penalty spot. She moved her tally of goals this season to nine.

This was the fifth win for the Xavier Gilbert-coached Drews Avenue aggregation from six games and in the process maintained their unbeaten streak, while the loss was the first for Cavalier from six outings.

Marcel Gayle, the assistant coach at Waterhouse, said the victory was a good one.

“Scoring five goals in the final you couldn’t want anymore than this, although the team could have won by a much wider margin if they had capitalised on the many chances, especially in the second half,” Gayle said.

He said the team should continue where they left off in the league prior to the mid-season final and should be looking to reach the final.

“I did not expect to win by such a big margin but the players stuck to the instructions. Cavalier did not play well as I had expected a better performance. They pushed us back a little in the second half, but against a quality team as Waterhouse I know the task would be hard for them after the goals started to come,” he added.

Everdean Scarlett, coach of Cavalier, was not too happy in the manner the team went down and said it was a total lacklustre performance.

“We wanted to win this mid-season final but they played a poor first half as they were down 0-3, but played much better in the second half but still allowed Waterhouse to dominate the game,” Scarlett said.

He said the indiscipline was one of their main factors for losing as it also started in the training where some of the players did not show, while during the match they did not play to instructions.

“This is only the first final as there are two more finals left in the competition, but we need to go back to the drawing board and correct these mistakes,” said Scarlett.

He said Waterhouse were the better team on the day as they played extremely well and deserved to win, though he did not expect to lose so badly.

The game started off quite evenly but it was the defending champions who looked more purposeful in their approach, producing slick combinations of passes. Cavalier on the other hand were slower in their approach and allowed Waterhouse to dominate the early exchanges.

Murray opened the scoring when her left-footed grounder went straight into the far corner, giving goalkeeper Daniellle Flake no chance in only the seventh minute of play.

Four minutes later they went up 2-0 after breaking up a Cavalier attack and countered nicely through Tasheika Small, Bailey, Murray, Captain Tarania Clarke, and Duhaney, with Richards shooting from inside the Cavalier penalty area to beat Flake via the underside of the crossbar.

The third goal came in the 45th minute for the champions when Richards received a pass on the right flank from the hard-working midfielder Duhaney. She dribbled neatly past two defenders before unleashing a hard right-footed shot that eluded Flake into the corner.

Four minutes into the second half, Waterhouse made it 4-0 through Bailey, who latched onto a pass on the right wing by Duhaney. She raced past the defenders and made no mistake with a low left-footed grounder past substitute goalkeeper Telesha Campbell .

Cavalier went in search for a goal and looked more positive in their approach, especially in the middle, but their brief thrust towards goal was denied by the sturdy Waterhouse defenders.

However, Cavalier finally produced a serious threat from a quick break on the left side through Suen Gregory, who was brought down inside the Waterhouse penalty area and the referee immediately pointed to the penalty spot.

Gordon made no mistake by cannoning the ball into the right-hand corner past a diving goalkeeper Tiana Schroeter .

Bailey scored her second goal of the match in the 75th minute to increase Waterhouse’s lead to 5-1 by easily lobbing the ball into the roof of the goal.