St Catherine retain title at First Half Only 45 Football

St Catherine High School were crowned back-to-back champions of the second staging of the First Half Only 45 Football Extravaganza on the weekend. They defeated Manchester High School 3-1.

The preseason tournament, which was held at the Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium on Saturday, began at 11 a.m. and ended at 6 p.m.

The winning team pocketed a $500,000 cheque. Six schools - St Catherine High, William Knibb High, Manchester High, Munro College, Calabar High and Kingston Technical High - competed in the extravaganza.

Speaking with The Gleaner, winning coach Anthony Patrick said the competition is seen as beneficial in helping to prepare the team for the upcoming Manning Cup season.

“This competition is welcomed. We are happy to play again, and definitely achieved our goal, which was to win back-to-back titles. I think it helped us to do so well in the Manning cup last year, with us reaching the final. Hopefully, we can get the same results again this season,” said Patrick.

After an impressive run to the semi-finals, Zone A winners Catherine High cruised into the final with a 4-2 victory over Calabar.

Zone B winners Manchester High defeated Munro College 2-0 in their competitive semi-final game.

According to Patrick, the team faced challenges due to losing their entire back line and having a subpar pitch to compete on.

Despite the challenges, Patrick said the young players showed promise.

“The 15- and 16-year-olds definitely came in and played a major part on a challenging field,” said Patrick.

“Manchester really put up a fight against us,” he added.

Meanwhile, losing coach Johnoy Chambers said despite the disappointing result the boys’ performance was commendable.

“The boys showed up and displayed a lot of fight. I don’t want to hold the result against them. At the end of the day, we went into this competition with several objectives, one of them being winning the competition,” said Chambers.

Continuing, he added, “Other goals were met. Overall, I can’t bash my players at all, the performance they gave was excellent.

Kadean Young was the star for St Catherine as he scored a hat-trick in the final. St Catherine went two up with goals from Young in the 10th and 28th minutes.

Manchester would not back down and in the 33rd minute, Jehvontae Gordon registered the only goal for the team.

Young completed his hat-trick in the 45th minute to secure the win and was named Most Valuable Player.

Events director Hanif Comrie has set his sights on having patrons coming out to support the event next year.

“We aim to fill the stands next year,” he said, adding that he wanted fans to have a good experience.