C’down look to luck for trophies

Camperdown High School’s 1-0 victory over Hydel High School to capture their second win of the 2019 ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup competition yesterday may seem like a step towards ending their over 30-year trophy drought, but the Christopher Bender-coached team has ventured down this road before.

Last year, the boys from east Kingston looked poised, at least in the first round, to end their wait to lift a major schoolboy football ­trophy after last winning the Walker Cup in 1988. This, after they tallied 26 points in the first round without registering a defeat and needed only a point in the final game of the quarterfinal round to advance, but were beaten by the eventual champions, Kingston College (KC) 2-0.

Bender hopes luck will give them the edge they need to get over the hump.

UNFORTUNATE TIME

“When we lost to KC, three of our main players were out, and that caused an imbalance in the team, and it was unfortunate at the time,” he said. “Hopefully, we can get some luck this year. We played well today. We improved a lot since we last played, and I think the team will continue to do that as the season goes on.”

Captain Jeovanni Laing got the all-important goal late in the ­second half when he bodied in a sublime cross from Ronaldo Edwards.

Hydel, after winning their first major honours last year when they beat Excelsior in the Walker Cup final, is rebuilding and ­struggled ­yesterday to contain the quick passes and ­positioning from Camperdown.

“We lost a lot of players from last year, so we have put together a team that is learning to play with each other, but we are still trying to compete at the same time, “ coach Keithy Simpson said. “Even though it was a tough game, we have to go back to the drawing board and get ready for the next game.”