‘STINGING ATTACK’ PUMPS IN 28 GOALS IN FIRST ROUND
OCHO RIOS, St Ann; September 22, 2025
Ocho Rios High, last season’s best DaCosta Cup team on the entire North Coast, has taken a stranglehold on Zone K, hammering home 28 goals in the first round of matches.
They are grouped in Zone K with Ferncourt, York Castle, Brown’s Town, Marcus Garvey, and Discovery Bay high schools.
In their first match, they beat Ferncourt 2-1; beat York Castle at YC, 4-2; hammered Discovery Bay 8-0 at D’Bay; put down Marcus 8-1 and in their most recent encounter blanked Brown’s Town 6-0 at Drax Hall, on Saturday, September 21, 2025.
On the scorecard for the Brown’ Town encounter were Nathan Whitehorn with a hat-trick, Kaneil Brown with two, and Dario James with one. These are among the foremost members responsible for Ocho Rios’ large number of goals, even though Whitehorn missed the first three matches.
Brown is a point man from last year’s team on which then 14-year-old James began to show his skills.
(Anchor for the defence and team, at right, captain Kawayne McInnis and with him Demar Tyson)
The North Coast Times pointed out to team manager Eyan Kean, in an interview, that the team’s defence has been breached even by weaker teams.
Mr Kean said that Ocho Rios lost three of last year’s defenders, hence “defensively we are not as experienced as we were last year.” However, he said the team was building as matches went on.
(Members of the Ocho Rios High team warm up before last Saturday’s match)
Kawayne McInnis, team captain, is in his fifth year of playing in the DaCosta Cup and is the only defender from last year’s team, from which about eight members were retained. He is the anchor for the defence.
(Brown’s Town High D’Cup team)
According to Mr Kean, Ocho Rios has a “stinging attack” proven by the number of goals scored so far. He said the team, coached by Veron Peterkin, expected to go very far this season. Assessing the team’s performance up to the end of the first round of home and away games, Mr Kean said: “We (management and coaching team) are very comfortable with the team and the boys are very comfortable as well.”
