Dinthill, KC into Champions Cup semis

Western Bureau:

Dinthill Technical High School and Kingston College (KC) booked their spots in the semifinals of the ISSA Champions Cup football competition yesterday.

A Jaheim Thomas, hat-trick inspired Dinthill's 5-1 win over St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) in the first of two games at the St Elizabeth Technical High School Sports Complex in Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth. In the other game, defending champions KC had a 1-0 win over Manning's School.

Dinthill came into the game with a defence said by many to be impenetrable, but it was breached by STATHS in the 11th minute through Leon Brown. Thomas responded five minutes later with the equaliser. Ricardo Matthews (27th minute) and Shamar Hutchinson's 39th pushed Dinthill's lead to 3-1 at halftime.

Thomas was ruthless in completing his hat-trick in the second half with goals in the 60th and 83rd minutes.

Dinthill coach Oniel Thomas (no relation to Jaheim) said while they didn't want to concede, they were more concerned with being more ruthless in front of goal.

"It was a good performance," he said. "It's all about preparation and when we said, 'Come back from the break the guys, just run in because they really want it,' that encourages everyone to work.

"One of the things that we realised from the previous games was that we were missing a lot of chances. We have been working on it after the break, and it worked out well.

Coach Thomas was full of praise for Jaheim.

"He has been knocking at the door with one and two goals," It's good to see him score three today. He ran into some injury problems earlier in the season, so we had to take time to ease him back in. He is a good player and as the competition progresses, I expect him to get better."

KC'S NARROW WIN

After taking the lead just 10 minutes into the game when Ronardo Burgher guided a free kick in at the near post, KC seemed they would run away with it. However, Manning's grew into the contest, especially in the second half, and took the game to their counterparts.

While happy for the win, KC coach Ludlow Bernard said their poor finishing is an area of concern.

"We are happy for the result," he said. "We played against a spirited team that didn't have anything to lose. At the end of the day, the strength of our team prevailed. We didn't concede many attempts even though they had possession, because they were putting a lot of bodies forward.

"I am concerned about the finishing because we kept them in the game. It is something that we have to address."

Manning's coach Everton Tomlinson said a lack of confidence was the reason for their defeat as he believes they are just as good as KC.

"If we had capitalised on our earlier chances, things could have been different. However, we continued to play. Looking back at the game, I don't see where KC team is better than us,"

"The fact that KC are former champions, and a big name, played on the mind of the players. I have to get them to believe more in themselves. We will be working on that, and, hopefully, we can get over the hurdle against Dinthill (in the daCosta Cup semi-final)."