Hosts St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) and Frome Technical High School advanced to the semi-finals of the rural area Ben Francis Knockout competition after respective 2-0 and 1-0 wins over Vere Technical and Munro College at the STETHS Sports Complex in Santa Cruz on Thursday.

STETHS got their goals through Negus Daley in the 30th minute and Michael Jerman in the 56th in what was a one-sided affair.

From the very first attack, the home team almost got the go-ahead goal when the Vere defence headed towards their own goal in trying to clear from a left-sided cross but the goalkeeper came to their rescue.

In a dominant display Rohane Brown and Daley went close to scoring in the sixth and 13th minutes, respectively. Then striker Michael Jerman almost found the opener but his header went inches over the bar.

Jerman fed a ball on the right flank to put Daley through one-on-one with the opposing defender. He left him off balanced with a drop of the shoulder before unleashing a powerful shot that beat the goalkeeper for pace to open the scoring.

Vere rarely troubled the STETHS defence as the midfield duo of Nickardo Smith and Ajay Smith were enough to break up attacks on the rare occasion.

After the interval, the pressure from the Omar “Rambo” Wedderburn-coached team again brought reward when Jerman robbed central defender Nevaughn Myrie of the ball in his own half and raced away to place his shot into the top left-hand corner of the goal past an advancing Michael Panton in the Vere goal to make it 2-0.

Brown, who was a constant threat, forced a spectacular save when his left-footed pile-driver was pushed over the crossbar. Zamario Douglas also had his shot ricochet off the horizontal section of the framework in the 80th minute after being set up by Brown.

Vere’s Coach Hugh Howell was very disappointed after the loss. “They are a young team and playing good defence comes with experience. This year was just to gain experience, we’ll only be losing three or four players, so next year we’ll be back.”

Assistant coach of STETHS Davian “Sleepy” Dennis was pleased with his team’s performance. “We really wanted to win the daCosta Cup and we fell short but nevertheless we still have a trophy to play for. We turned up today not 100 per cent, but we got the win and that’s what we wanted.”

In the curtain raiser, in the searing heat of Santa Cruz the action on the pitch in the first half was characterised by sloppy passing with neither team able to break down the other. A number of corner kicks from both teams was the closest they went to threatening the goal.

Akeem Kongal’s high effort from the edge of the box when he broke free midway the first half was the best effort from open play.

The second half started with Munro having the better of play and forcing Frome on the defensive with Ceon Falconer and the diminutive Xarier Bruce causing problems for the Frome defence. Playing the counter, midfielder Fabian Forbes played a delightful ball over the top and it was latched on to by Javel Clarke, who calmly lobbed the advancing Henry James without breaking stride in the 67th minute.

Munro came close to the equaliser twice with Captain Sean Kenyon and Ceon Falconer both being denied.

Coach of Munro, Patrick “Jackie” Walters, said: “The team didn’t create enough chances and by not creating enough we didn’t score. Congrats to Frome Technical and we’ll be back next season.”

Winning Coach Cleighton Stephens was satisfied with his team’s effort. “We have been playing a high line and got punished but we went back to the drawing board and got the result. We really want to bring this cup back to Westmoreland.”

The Ben Francis semi-finals will be played next Tuesday at STETHS.

— Steve Cole