QUEEN'S Royal College did not use a whip. But yesterday at the St Clair Avenue ground, the Royalians succeeded in taming the "Tigers" 2-0 with good passing and football.
The euphoria of the victory would have been heightened when news came about St Mary's slim 1-0 loss to Mucurapo at Fatima Grounds. That result meant that the Royalians had jumped to the top of the BWIA Secondary Schools Football League North Zone pack on 10 points. The Royalians were matched in points by Malick who edged Success Laventille 2-1 at the Queen's Park Oval. And at Trinity, Tranquillity turned back the homesters 1-0.
But back at St Clair, QRC dominated a lopsided contest.
Quicker to the ball and more determined in their play, the boys in blue starved their Westmoorings counterparts of possession. And after controlling the first twelve minutes of the encounter, QRC got the go-ahead goal through the speed of Sterling Brathwaite.
The QRC captain played Mikeil Germain's clearance around defender Jamie Alkind at the halfline before running diagonally into the area and beating the St Anthony's goalkeeper with a low rightfooter to his left.
That individual effort was the exception rather than the norm.
The QRC midfielders—Brathwaite, Naeem Frederick, Okpe Adogwa and Nigel Barrow—were making sure that their strikers—Caron Williams and Frederick Douglas—were getting accurate service.
The situation was reversed for St Anthony's strikers Abiola Clarence and Kenwyn Jones. Misdirected passes forced the duo to frequently come deep back into their half to help retrieve the ball from the dominant QRC outfit.
Adding to their problems too was the inability of Grovesnor's charges to master the offside trap.
QRC took advantage of that failure on one occasion in the 23rd minute. A diagonal ball out of the back found QRC winger Okpe Adogwa bursting down the right. With the St Anthony's defence scrambling back into position, Adogwa passed to Frederick Douglas in the box who squeezed the ball past Germain for QRC's second item.
St Anthony's never settled after. QRC, using a slow build-up from the back, had their opponents pegged on their backfoot and in their own half for sustained periods.
That domination, though, led to no further change in the scorecard, Adogwa, Douglas and Williams failing to find the net. But when referee Richard Piper gave the last blast of his whistle, the 2-0 scoreline and the nature of the match showed that Royalians had dominated the Tigers.