AFTER relinquishing their title last season, Jamaica College (JC) Head Coach Davion Ferguson says his players have matured and are motivated to win the 2024 Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association/Digicel Manning Cup.

The Old Hope Road-based team booked a spot in the semi-finals after a comfortable 4-0 win over Tivoli Gardens High at Ashenheim Stadium, topping Group A with seven points.

A double from Jamoy Dennis and strikes from Nashordo Gibbs and Amarlie King saw off Tivoli who needed a win to overtake JC in the standings.

Ferguson hailed his team for their commanding performance, despite the high stakes involved.

“At this time of the season it’s all about trying to save legs and bodies as much as possible, so the way how we got the job done, we’re very pleased. I think today we never got out of first gear; we controlled the game, we controlled the threat, and we got a very comfortable win in the end,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

The 31-time champions JC were knocked out of the competition at this stage last year, which had been the first time since 2011 they hadn’t made the semi-finals. However, Ferguson believes the team learnt from the mistakes and are growing in confidence as they look to reclaim their title they won back in 2022.

“We’re a year older; last year we had a lot of internal issues and this year we’ve managed to avoid some of those and iron out some of the issues we had. The experience of the boys, plus the rejigging [of] our structure in terms of what we normally had, contribute[d] to where we are now,” he said.

“We have a very excellent programme at JC — from the under 14 right up to the under 19. A lot of players you saw here and [during] most of the season are really young players who have two, three, even four more years of schoolboy football so, for us, it augurs well for the future of the programme. The programme is in a healthy state so we have youngsters who are ready, and we’ll expose them. For the semi-finals, it’s all about raising the intensity — but we have the legs and capacity to go up a level or two more. ”

Tivoli Head Coach Christopher Nicholas says the odds were stacked against his team, especially with JC having home advantage.

“The fact that the game was played at home for JC, that was kind of — you know what I mean? Then, we didn’t have our strongest team. But, not trying to find any excuses but it’s football, so we have to come and play here because that’s where it [match] was able to be play[ed],” he said.

However, Nicholas believes his team is moving in the right direction and is optimistic of their chances in the future.

“We think the team did their best and [have] been having a good season. We were one win away from going to the semi-finals; last year we didn’t win a game in the quarter-final round so we’re one step ahead. Next year we’ll come again and come stronger.”

Tivoli will now drop down to the Walker Cup quarter-finals and will be joined by Mona High, who will be dethroned champions of the Manning Cup after their 2-0 loss to Kingston College (KC) at Stadium East.

After their opening draw against JC, Mona’s back-to-back losses against Tivoli and KC see them finish bottom of the group with just one point. It’s the first time since 2022 that Craig Butler’s team haven’t made the last four of the competition. KC advance to the semis as they finish on six points, one behind JC and three ahead of Tivoli.

The win for KC and JC also mean they will be two of the urban area’s four representatives in the Champions Cup, the all-island knockout competition.

The remaining two semi-finalists will be decided this afternoon as last season’s finalists Hydel, St Catherine, Campion and Excelsior all have a shot of booking their spots.

FRIDAY’S RESULTS

Jamaica College 4, Tivoli Gardens 0

Mona 0, Kingston College 2

SATURDAY’S GAMES

Hydel vs Campion @ Prison Oval

Excelsior vs St Catherine @ Stadium East

Both games to start 3:00 pm