Sport

Anthony Minott, Gleaner Writer

Striker Kamille Griffiths scored twice as defending champions St Andrew High retained the Jamaica Hockey Federation (JHF) schoolgirls' Under-16 hockey title with a 2-0 win over Convent of Mercy, Alpha Academy, at the Mona hockey turf on Wednesday.

Griffiths scored in the ninth and 29th minutes.

Alpha Academy came into the match full of confidence, being the only side to defeat St Andrew all season. But St Andrew used tactical adjustments to nullify the Alpha offence.

The coach of St Andrew, Dr Michelle Holt, said that their tactical plans paid off.

"We knew they were prepared for us and we decided that they (their best players) weren't going to play today, someone else had to beat us today other than Shamar White and Stephanie Somers," she pointed out. "White had to give up the ball every time.

Right calls

"We sacrificed Demi Nicholson in the defence even though she's an attacking player and I thought that Kamille, with a lot of space upfront, can take on any defending team. We called it right and on top of that we had our full team today," Dr Holt added. "The last game against Alpha we didn't have our goalkeeper and we didn't have two of our best defenders (and we lost 2-1), so we were too defensive in that game.

"We didn't worry about that game and we understood what the problems were. We had no doubts as we have quality players on our team and we knew we could have won," said Holt.

Kirk King, Alpha's coach, said: "My team played very flat; the first bad game of the season, unfortunately it came in the final."

He added: "Andrews also did a good job of counteracting our strengths."

Meanwhile, Mona High copped the boys' Under-16 title with a 3-2 sudden-death penalty shoot-out win over Munro College. Both schools were locked 0-0 after regulation play and extra-time. Phillip Dawson scored two penalties, the second of which was the decisive third goal, hence, handing Mona the title. Obrien Hayden scored the other penalty, while Jason McPherson and Nye Lyn netted for Munro.