ECA not taking anything for granted as Alberga Cup quarter-finals begin
A repeat of last season’s final between pre-season favourites Emmanuel Christian Academy (ECA) and defending champions Lannaman’s Prep highlights the first set of matches in the Jamaica Independent Schools Association Alberga Cup U12 Football Competition, as the island’s top 12 prep schools draw swords in the quarter-final group stage starting today.
ECA will be looking to turn the tide on their rivals this time around and will start the game as overwhelming favourites to get their Group C assignments off to a positive start, but Head Coach Gregory Jones is not taking anything for granted and is determined to return the Olivier Road-based school to the summit of prep school football.
“We know the Lannaman’s team is not as strong as last year, but they are the defending champions and are still very dangerous, so we will not underestimate them,” Jones told the Jamaica Observer.
While ECA ended the preliminary stage with a 100 per cent record, topping Zone 3, Lannaman’s barely scraped through to the quarter-final group stage as the second-best, third-place team.
“We will be cautious but at the same time, we will be going for three points. We saw them play and we will prepare for them. We know their strengths — these we will try to nullify, and we know their weaknesses, which we will try to exploit. Our aim is three points,” Jones added.
The match will raise the curtains at 12:30 pm in a quarter-final Group C double-header at Wolmer’s Prep School with the hosts, Wolmer’s, playing surprise package Morris Knibb in the 2 pm feature, in a battle between two teams that ended the first round in second place in their respective zones.
In Group B, Mona Prep, the top-ranked team after the preliminary round, will face Vaz Prep, which advanced as the best third-placed team at 12:30 pm at the American International School of Kingston (AISK), while Liberty Academy, who finished second in their group, tackle Mandeville’s El Instituto — one of five undefeated teams in the competition — at Sts Peter and Paul Prep, also starting at 12:30 pm.
That game will be followed by the Group A encounter between the unbeaten Sts Peter and Paul Prep and last year’s beaten finalists in the Henriques Cup, Belair Prep, at the same venue at 2 pm.
In the other match in Group A, the number-two ranked Hillel Academy will travel a few kilometres east to face AISK at that school, starting at 2 pm, in what promises to be another intriguing contest.
The quarter-final group stage of the competition will continue on Monday and Wednesday with a full slate of matches before attention turns to the Henriques Cup knockout tournament and the semi-final stage of the Alberga Cup.