St Mary Tech fueled by fans

Gihon Murdock, coach of St Mary Technical High School, who were the only team from the east to have made it to the quarterfinals of the daCosta Cup last year, said they are looking use the support gained from the team's fanbase to repeat the feat this season.

St Mary Tech now sits atop the Zone J table with 13 points, one ahead of St Mary High School, following their 2-0 victory over Guys Hill High School at the Richmond Farm Sports Complex yesterday. Carlton Rose and Alvaro Duncan were the goalscorers for St Mary Tech.

"Yes, most definitely. Even the turnout at the gate, you can see the difference from previous years. We had some success some years back, but lost that fan base when we didn't qualify for the interzone round two years after. However, due to our success last year, the support is back with us now," Murdock said.

LOOKING TO REPEAT

Despite going through a transition after losing most of the players from last year's squad, Murdock said they are looking to at least repeat last year's success.

"We only managed to retain about two players from last year's squad, so this season, we are kind of in a rebuilding phase. With the quality that we have, it will be hard to get to the semi-finals, but we are at least looking at getting to the quarterfinal stage again," he said.

"We didn't build on where we left off on last year, so basically, it's the Under-16s we are depending on. The core of the team from last year left, as well as we lost players to other schools like Charlemont, Lennon and others," he added.

Looking ahead to the top-of-the-table clash on Wednesday with St Mary High at the Highgate Community Centre, Murdock, who is pleased with his team's performance yesterday, said they are looking to use the confidence from this game to pull away at the top of Zone J.

"Today, I think we showed determination and character. The previous game, we won 1-0, and the performance was not up to par, but you can see that we are back on track now, even though we only scored two goals. So going into Wednesday's game, this set us up nicely," said Murdock.

Other ISSA/WATA daCosta Cup results:

Maldon 1-4 Cornwall College

Belmont Academy 0-4 Knockalva