Hydel face STGC hurdle today
DEFENDING CHAMPIONS Hydel High School will be wary of the strength of St George’s College (STGC) when the two teams meet in their ISSA Walker Cup quarterfinal clash today at the Stadium East field at 3 p.m.
After exiting the Manning Cup second round, the Corey Bennettcoached Hydel have focused all their attention on retaining their Walker Cup title. Bennett says that the team is ready to compete after the six-day layoff. “Our long layoff has affected our training because we haven’t been training as regularly as we should have, but we are up to the task at hand,” he told
The Gleaner.
STGC are coming off two negative results after their ISSA Champions Cup elimination to Cornwall College on Saturday and their 1-1 draw with Excelsior, which saw them fail to reach the Manning Cup semi-finals. But Bennett is cautious about his team’s chances, saying that the ‘Light Blues’ are still dangerous opponents.
“We know that they are a very tough team to play against,” he said. “They are well coached and tend to be a very good ball-playing team, similar to our style of play. We have to prevent them from getting the early jump on us, and, hopefully, we can stay in the game as long as possible, and, hopefully, get a result towards the end.”
In the early game of the Stadium East double-header, Mona High School battle Camperdown High School at 1 p.m. Mona are on the hunt for their first schoolboy title of any kind when they face Camperdown, a team that they have already faced twice this season. Assistant coach Anthony Bennett says that the team is eager to finally get a win over a team that has had their number this year.
“They are very good, and they feel they can beat us once again because they beat us two times in the season,” he said. “The two games we lost against them it was [our] mistakes, so [we] are motivated to face Camperdown.”
Mona defeated St Jago High School in the first round and will rest their hopes on Mario Simms, Joel Powell, and Loloxy Reid to go one step further than last year when they were beaten in the quarterfinals by eventual champions Hydel.
In the double-header at the Ashenheim Stadium at Jamaica College, St Catherine High School face Charlie Smith High School at 1 p.m., then Jonathan Grant School take on Excelsior High School at 3 p.m.