DESPITE eking out a slim 1-0 win over Maldon High in their ISSA/WATA daCosta Cup return round Zone A game in Montego Bay on Saturday for their fourth-straight win, Cornwall College’s coach, Dr Dean Weatherly says he was not happy with his team’s execution.

Cornwall College was forced to play without a number of their regular starters for the third game because of what the coach said were “slight injuries”, but said his team still lacked “a killer instinct”.

The 12-time champions are leaders in Zone A with 16 points and have conceded once in six games but Weatherly said, “We should have buried Maldon today but we need that killer instinct. And while the win was good, as it helps us to build up confidence, on a different day… we could have really gotten ourselves into trouble.”

An own goal was the difference between the teams on Saturday, and Weatherly said they tried to play a ball control game.

“We have been creating chances,” he said. “Today we tried to have a ball possession game but I think we’re hurrying it, especially when we’re reaching the attacking third, so it’s one that we definitely have to work on.”

He said he was hoping to lock up qualification for the second round “in the next two games, and then give more players a chance to play while resting some others who have been nursing injuries”.

Dillon Thelwell, the Maldon High coach who had a good 2022 season despite not advancing, says they were in yet another “rebuilding phase”.

They won back-to-back games earlier on but have now lost back-to-back games.

“I think we started the tournament really good and then we fell back,” he said. “I think we give a good account of ourselves today. With a bit more aggression I think we could get a goal or two from the game.”

Thelwell says while they were out of the top two spots in the zone, “We have four games to go and we have to get maximum points to catch up to the big guys. It’s really hard but we’re gonna try to push hard for the four games coming up.”

Former champions St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) scored the biggest win of the season when they swamped Roger Clarke High 20-0, with DeAndre Barnett scoring six times in the first half and Justin McPherson also getting a hat-trick. D’Andre Hibbert scored in his sixth-consecutive game.

BB Coke High moved into second place behind STETHS in Zone E after handing Munro College their first loss of the season, winning 2-1.

Belair High also had a 12-0 win over Cross Keys High, with Daniel Brown scoring four goals, while Raimi Smith, Odane Windett and Fante Johnson all scored two goals each, and Javon Daring and Christian Henry also scored.

Also in Zone F, deCarteret College beat Mount St Joseph Catholic 6-0, with Raheem Russell scoring four goals.

Cedric Titus High’s five-game winning streak came to an end as they had to come from two goals down to earn a 2-2 draw with York Castle High in St Ann.

William Knibb Memorial beat Aabuthnott Gallimore 5-0, with two goals each from Theonjae Bennett and Koran Henriques, as Brown’s Town High had a 12-1 win over Discovery Bay High.