Mona imperious

WHILE MONA head coach Craig Butler said his project is aimed at more than just titles, his charges are playing like contenders with an attacking brand of football that teams in this year’s ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup, so far, have no answer to.

Camperdown High were the latest school to succumb to Mona’s offensive burst, overpowered 9-2 in their group E encounter yesterday.

Mona were led by a hat trick from Zhaine Pinnock (51st, 53rd and 59th minutes) with contributions from Denzel McKenzie (fourth), Donhue Mitchell (16th), Dante Peralto (19th), Romarion Thomas (54th), Ackeem Bernard (57th) and Damoi Whitfield (72nd). Demario Knight (20th) and Marlon James (61st) got the goals for Camperdown.

Mona pounced early in the first half and while Camperdown managed to hold them to three goals, the hosts scored five in the first nine minutes of the second half, putting the game well beyond reach.

Butler said the commitment to the pressing game has been the factor for his team not only scoring early in games, but often.

“The last three games we have scored at the same time. It is about playing that pressing game. Every player that we had on the pitch today played almost every position. So we were able to rotate and we were happy with what we got,” Butler said.

The goals have been coming in for Mona who now have tallied 21, the most so far in the tournament. While calm about his team’s chances in the tournament, Butler has not lost sight on the ultimate goal for his Mona High project.

“For me, I don’t do this to win the Manning Cup. I do this to win in the game of life, for Jamaica. If we can continue to set the example of a proper system and proper unity, then I hope that everybody else will follow suit and will be in a position to go to a World Cup and challenge,” Butler said.

“I think the focus needs to be on proper systems in our country and I think this is a good example.”

Despite the scoreline, Camperdown head coach Donovan Lofters had reason for optimism from his team, one being their response after Friday’s incident which saw three of their players sent off, and the other being getting the difficult games out of the way early.

“This is behind us. We have seven games to go and 21 points to play for. We can’t dwell on what happened yesterday. We tried with the youngsters,” Lofters said.

“They stood up, they fought and we scored two goals. We scored goals in a defeat against the best team in the zone. So there are positive things that we can look at and we can build on that.”

In the other Group E games, Hydel High defeated Kingston High 7-1, while Wolmer’s Boys’ School beat Papine 2-0.