Cavalier await JWPL final opponents after second-leg hammering
CAVALIER BOOKED their spot in the final of the Jamaica Women’s Premier League following a commanding 10-1 victory (16-3 on aggregate) over Vere United yesterday at the UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence.
Vere, who started the brighter of the two just as they did in the first leg, took an early lead in the ninth minute t hanks t o Daihla Whyte’s cracking strike. That lead, however, was cut short as Ramona Wallace equalised in the 15th minute courtesy of a well-struck, low, leftfooted effort.
Cavalier would head to the half-time interval with a 2-1 lead as Shanhaine Nelson converted a penalty in the 38th minute.
In the second half, Cavalier went on a goal feast, with Vere United visibly running out of steam.
Wallace counted a brace, adding her second in the 48th minute, while the experienced Kadian Wallace also got in on the goals, sending Cavalier 4-1 up by the 58th minute.
Sheyenne Bonnick’s composed finish at the far post in the 65th minute and substitute Jynell Graham’s addition in the 68th put the game completely out of Vere’s reach.
Then it was the Rena Gordon show. The captain, who was kept quiet up until the 70th minute, used her class, skill, and pace to terrorise the Vere United defence, converting in the 71st, 78th, and 84th minute to complete her hat trick.
Bonnick completed a double in 93rd minute. With Cavalier’s last attack of the game, she expertly caressed her effort into the Vere United net.
Collin Wilson, assistant coach of Cavalier, said that having scored just two goals in the first half, the half-time team talk from the coaching staff was to remind his players to just enjoy the game.
WILSON PLEASED
“The plan was just to keep possession of the ball and whenever we got the chance to attack, then we would do so. We are very pleased with scoring 10 goals because throughout our training sessions, we worked on our finishing. From our final in the knockout competition against Frazsiers Whip, we saw our shortcomings and we have been working on that. The half-time team talk was just to tell the girls to enjoy themselves,” said Wilson.
Vere United’s Shomari Malcom believes that going away from the game plan, along with fitness issues were the ingredients that cost his team over the two-leg affair.
“We didn’t stick with what we practised because players started to lose their discipline, and that’s where we lost the game. Players stopped listening and started to play where they wanted to play and not where I placed them. We got indisciplined, and that’s what cost us the game, along with fitness issues.”