Mona High School qualified for its first-ever schoolboy football final after they swamped Kingston Technical High School 5-0 in the semi-finals of the ISSA Walker Cup Knockout competition at stadium East on Friday.
In the other semi-final played at the same venue, defending champions St Catherine High School edged Excelsior High School 2-1 on penalties after the teams had played to a 1-1 result in regulation time.
In the first game Craig Butler’s Mona High, who parades a number of his Phoenix Academy Football Club players, made a mockery of Kingston Technical when Romarion Thomas registered a first-half brace to lead his side into the break comfortably ahead.
He hit his first on 27 minutes then added a second two minutes before the break when he thundered a shot from well outside the penalty area, which goalkeeper Kerron Grant failed to keep out.
Robino Gordon made it 3-0 in the 51st minute, before Keneldo Brown added a fourth in the 54th minute after he cut inside the Kingston Technical defense in the area and placed the ball into the far corner.
Damoi Whitfield completed the 5-0 rout in the 73rd minute for a well-deserved place in next Saturday’s final.
The second game, a rematch of the 2019 final resulted in St Catherine edging it once again.
Excelsior High School took the lead when a shot from Jevaughnie Simms deflected into the net off retreating St Catherine defender Joshua Seivwright in the 37th minute.
But two minutes into the second half St Catherine pulled level when Nickyle Ellis volleyed the ball from the edge of the box and over the head of Jadavin Waul.
With neither team being able to find a winner, the dreaded penalty kicks were used to determine a winner.
Excelsior High School missed their first four penalties, while St Catherine missed their first three.
Ellis scored for St Catherine and Simms did likewise, thus leaving Jevin Parkinson to take the champions back to the final.
The Walker Cup final will be played next Saturday at the Stadium East Field as the curtain-raiser to the Manning Cup final.
Meanwhile, the Champions Cup Knockout final will be played today at Stadium East at 3:00 on with Clarendon College facing Dinthill Technical High School.
