Bridgeport too hot for STATHS

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

After watching his Bridgeport High team assault St Andrew Technical High School's (STATHS) goal in a 4-0 drubbing at Gibson Road yesterday, head coach Anthony Patrick described the showing as their best to date as the Portmore-based school continued their impressive march in the ISSA/Gatorade/Digicel Manning Cup schoolboy football competition.

"I think we played a pretty good game. We had a good first half and in the second half we started playing the ball around much better. They are actually beginning to look better and this is the best game that we have played so far," said Patrick after the game that saw striker Damani Williams net his seventh goal after yesterday's brace, with Neiko Williams and Rayon Swire adding to the tally.

The win pushed the 2001 and 2006 champions to 13 points atop the table, while STATHS remained third with nine points. In the group's other game, José Marti joined Bridgeport at the top with a 6-0 victory over Oberlin, who remain on a point.

The Bridgeport-STATHS matchup was expected to be a closer affair considering the teams' positions in the standings. However, the hosts were certainly not in a hospitable mood as they made light work of the visitors, outplaying them in every imaginable department.

It took STATHS some 25 minutes before they could register their first attempt on goal - an ambitious lob by the diminutive David Miller, which almost got the better of goalkeeper Oral Williams, who had strayed off his line.

That chance seemed to send Bridgeport into another gear as they made their dominance count with two goals in as many minutes.

Romane Howell collected a loose ball at the top of the penalty box before forcing STATHS' stand-in 'keeper' Francois Regis into a save.

Regis could, however, do nothing to stop Williams' perfectly weighted shot which came from the ensuing corner, with the midfielder wrapping his foot around the ball after picking up a short corner on the right side in the 33rd minute.

Two minutes later, Swire converted from the penalty spot after Damani Williams was brought down in the box by Jerome Mullings.

Impressive passes

Damani Williams took over on 43 minutes, latching on to a kind of ricochet to power a shot into the top corner after Bridgeport had strung several impressive passes together. The spell culminated with a 40-yard diagonal pass out of defence and a teasing cross by Williams which landed on the foot of captain Rodger Bucknor, whose shot was charged down by a defender, before falling kindly to Damani Williams, who pounced.

Bridgeport underlined their victory in fine style, with Damani Williams running on to a miscued clearance in the STATHS' penalty box to volley into the bottom left-hand corner of the goal for his team's 14th goal of the campaign in five games.

STATHS' coach Phillip Williams said: "We came here knowing it would have been tough here today. We came here with a game plan, but because of indiscipline we broke down tactically. But I still have to give kudos to the team. we came here short and it was a good performance by Bridgeport," said Williams.