With all eyes on the defending ISSA/WATA DaCosta Cup champions Garvey Maceo High, who were playing against Vere Technical High school in what was billed as the Clarendon derby in the featured game on television, the Champions Cup title-holders Clarendon College were quietly going about the business beating Lennon High 3-0 in Zone H action at the Toll Gate Community Centre on Saturday.

The many-time DaCosta Cup champions hardly needed to get out of first gear to get by their opponents on a heavy pitch.

Marques Reid in the 13th minute, Keheim Dixon in the 48th minute and Christopher Hull in the 76th minute, got the goals for Clarendon College as they overcame Lennon by a 3-0 score line for the second time this season.

The first goal scored by Reid was clearly a play drawn up on the training ground with the overlapping Hull providing a cross from the right side to the back post which was fired home over the head of Daniel Stoner in the Lennon goal, by a perfectly positioned Reid.

Clarendon College Head Coach Lenny Hyde was left beaming at the execution of that goal.

“That’s how we practise, we have some set plays, some patters that we drill every day, and they are getting it now, they are understanding it,” Hyde explained.

“It’s good to see when you practice something and you come and see it on the pitch, that was the plus for me,” he said with a smile.

In commenting on the ease of the victory, Hyde said the first round of the competition was to fine-tune his team for a much more difficult second round that is ahead of them.

“This round is to try and sort them out, get the chemistry going, because the next round is going to be crucial, we are going to play against better teams.

“So, we are using this round to try and get them understanding every aspect of the game, when to defend, when to attack, all of those things and I think they are getting it,” he noted.

Clarendon College dominated most of the possession of the ball during the ninety minutes and while that was exactly what their coach wanted from his players, he was still left disappointed with the productivity at the attacking end of the pitch.

“They are talented players, technically they are good, so it’s just for them to play the system and be disciplined right throughout the game.

“We are insisting that we make sure that we spend time with the football, and I think they did that. We should have created more [goalscoring] opportunities, that’s the part I don’t like.

“We can’t make 238 passes in the first half, and we only score one goal. So, going forward we have to create more opportunities with the wing backs getting involved and score some more goals,” he insisted.

Reid, who got the first goal of the match, controlled the flow of the game for Clarendon College and he came in for special praise from Hyde who sees the diminutive player as the lynchpin for the team this season.

“He has been doing this, he is a [player] that trains very hard. He loves football, I have to ask to leave the field sometimes, but he is like a Lamar Walker.

“He is very smart on the pitch, he knows the field, he knows his players and that’s what we ask of him. He is brave despite his size. He isn’t afraid to reach the 18-yard box and that’s what I love about him. He can only get better,” Hyde suggested.

It was the sixth win on the bounce for Clarendon College, who with two games left in the preliminary round, have already secured passage through to the second round of the competition.

And the former champions are in ominous forming having scored 25 goals while conceding only two in a zone that also consists of reigning Ben Francis Cup champions Edwin Allen High.

— Dwayne Richards