Butler fuels Mona’s drive to retain Walker Cup

Technical Director of defending champions Mona High School, Donovan Duckie, says that the institution is very determined to retain the ISSA/Walker Cup KO title this year for the head coach Craig Butler.

Mona High marched into the final of the competition with an exciting 3-2 victory over Charlie Smith Comprehensive High at Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex on Wednesday.

Franklyn Mitcham (38th), Savi-K Morton (42nd) and Joenaldo Payne (59th) were the goalscorers for Mona. Charlie Smith's goals were scored by Orlando Grant in the 39th minute and Anthony Bryan in the 45th minute.

Mona will face St Catherine High in the final of this year's competition.

St Catherine were led to victory courtesy of a brace from Dwight Gentles, as they defeated Kingston College 3-2. Gentles netted his goals in the seventh and 69th minutes. Kadean Young also scored for St Catherine, in the 44th minute.

KC's goals were scored by Kajay Fletcher in the 45th minute and Jamal Fraser in the 85th minute.

IN HOSPITAL

Duckie says that Butler, who led Mona High to their first Manning Cup title in 2023, is currently admitted in hospital, and therefore they are very focused on retaining their title to dedicate it to Butler.

"It is very important that we win this title because we felt that we were hard done in the Manning Cup and so we set out saying that we want to win this trophy," said Duckie.

"We want also to win for Craig Butler who is in the hospital right now.

"So we did our analysis on Charlie Smith and we understand how compact and confident they were in their home town and so we knew it was going to be very tough for us. But we did what we had to do and we are now in the final," Duckie said.

SHOTS ON TARGET

Both teams exchanged a number of shots on target in the opening minutes.

But it was Mona who hit the target first when Mitcham struck home a powerful right-footed shot past goalkeeper Julis Clarke.

However, Charlie Smith responded immediately when Grant tapped in an equaliser a minute later.

Mona, who were much more confident on the ball than Charlie Smith throughout the first half, scored their second goal when Morton collected a pass from midfield inside the 18-yard box, turned away from his marker and fired past Clarke into the goal.

Charlie Smith hit back to level the scoring at 2-2 on the stroke of half time, with Bryan firing home a thunderbolt shot against the run of play from 18 yards past custodian Howard Robinson.

Mona dominated the second half and created a number of open chances. And Payne, who had an excellent game for Mona, netted the winning goal when he arrived in the centre of the box to fire a powerful shot past Clarke.