Ocho Rios ready to create ‘own history’

THE ISSA/WATA daCosta Cup quarter-finals kick off today and Veron Peterkin, coach of Ocho Rios High, says his team will be aiming to get all three points when they travel to St Elizabeth to face Munro College.

In the only quarter-final match scheduled, seven-time daCosta Cup champions Munro will host the first-time last-eight qualifiers Ocho Rios at 3 p.m. Peterkin said Ocho Rios are ready for a tough match.

“We are not worried about any history, we are trying to create our own history. We can’t worry about who have won the title or who have never won it. Our thing is to just do our best. The absolute truth is, it is ‘dog-eat-dog’ time. So I basically want the three points. We know we have two Clarendon teams to face, so, if we can get it (the win) early, we take it. If not, we take the draw and move on.”

Continuing, he said “We know it is the quarter-finals, so it is a tough time. However, our plan remains the same and that is to just play to our strengths.”

Quarter-final matches in both the daCosta Cup and Manning Cup competitions were postponed from earlier this week because of the passage of Tropical Storm Rafael.

Munro, the Group 2 winners in the round of 16, are big favourites to earn a victory on home turf.

Kemar Ricketts, coach of Munro, said he just needs his players to stay focused in the first game.

“I want them to not be side-tracked by the opponents. I have said it many times, every game is like a final for us. Basically, we are at the stage where all opponents are good, so we don’t expect anything less from Ocho Rios. We expect them to come and to go hard but we also expect to do the same,” Ricketts said.

“The postponement didn’t affect us at all. We managed to put some sessions in. So it doesn’t change anything for us, we are still on course. I have been managing them (players) well in terms of keeping them focused, both physically and mentally,” he added.

Ocho Rios, the runners-up of Group 3, clawed their way from being two goals down to draw with Dinthill Technical on Saturday at Drax Hall.

Munro are on a quest to break a 60-year title drought, and will need all hands on deck to get past a fairly good Ocho Rios team.