STETHS, BB Coke, Glenmuir comfortably through to daCosta Cup quarters

FORMER DACOSTA Cup Champions, St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) advanced to the quaterfinals of the ISSA/WATA daCosta Cup football competition with a 2-0 win over Irwin High School in their second-leg, second-round tie at STETHS yesterday.

The victory sealed a 3-0 aggregate win for STETHS, who had got the better of Irwin 1-0 in the first leg of the tie.

STETH’s D’Andre Hibbert opened the scoring in the 27th minute before Dantay Hewitt’s 55th-minute strike made the quarterfinal berth sure.

While the scoreline seemed comfortable enough, Irwin were the ones on the front foot in the early exchanges, pegging the former champs back.

The goal came against the run of play as an errant throw from Irwin goalkeeper, Jkwon Kenton, was intercepted by Nicardo Smith. Smith’s cross found Hibbert, who coolly slotted home from just around 18 yards.

STETHS, fuelled by the goal, came into the game and carried that momentum into the second half.

Still, Irwin like a trapped animal, lashed out and showed signs of erasing the deficit, until Hewitt shocked them with a solo effort.

Beating his markers, Hewitt would unleash a pile driver that broke the hearts of the Irwin faithful.

Omar ‘Rambo’ Wedderburn, coach of STETHS, was happy to be back in the quarterfinals.

“As always, we just want to win games. Different opponents, different strategy, probably different system and different game plan. You know you have to set your thing based on the team you are going up against. I think it is shaping up and we do what we have to do moving forward,” Wedderburn said.

“Today, we came with a game plan to get a goal in the first half to push Irwin further behind. I think we did that well and we were always going to run early on this Irwin team. Finish the first half with 1-0, and in the second half, try to get an early goal again to really kill the game. I think we really did as much to get the three points from this game today.”

‘Look forward to next year’

Norman Foster, coach of Irwin, was disappointed not to advance for a second season running.

“It is the second season that we didn’t advance but it is a building process for us. We look forward to come again next year and try do better. I just think the team didn’t step up to the plate. I think we started good, we got STETHS playing sloppy. However, we didn’t capitalise on our chances and that put us back. When you are playing away from home you need to put away your chances. If you don’t, you will pay for it dearly,” Foster explained.

“Our captain, Leo Campbell wasn’t feeling good today but we tried with him. Sometimes when you have a player like that not putting their foot out there, is like the team falls short because they look up at him,” he added.

STETHS will wait the winner of the Cornwall College-Black River tie which concludes on Saturday.

Other teams through to the quarterfinals are BB Coke, whose 3-0 win over Paul Bogle yesterday completed a 5-0 aggregate rout, while Glenmuir, who were 3-0 winners over Morant Bay on Friday, drubbed the same opponents 9-0 to book their place.

Yesterday’s Results

Glenmuir 9-0 Morant Bay

STETHS 2-0 Irwin

Paul Bogle 0-3 BB Coke