Following the recent domination the parish of St Andrew, by Mona Heights found the Round-of-16 in the INSPORTS Primary School Netball too steep as they were crushed 22-6 by Gregory Park at the Portsmouth Primary multipurpose court today.
Portmore champions Gregory Park, one of the top teams tipped to win the national title, got off to a flyer and dominated the contest from start to finish.
By half-time the Annette Pearson-coached girls had a 12-point cushion after outscoring their opponents seven to zero at the end of the first quarter.
Mona were more competitive in the third quarter with both teams scoring three points each. But the damage was already done, as Gregory Park went on to seal a comfortable win and will be high on confidence in the return leg on January 24 at the Leila Robinson Courts.
Coach of Gregory Park Primary Annette Pearson said: “We trained assiduously hard. The girls are extremely talented. (They can play) far better. They have more in the engine.”
Coach of Mona Heights Primary Maureen Murray said: “Yeah, quite disappointed. I didn’t expect them to come out so slow. I think we need to bring up to ball more up court. They are inexperienced, they need more practice matches and they will come on.
The shock of the day, however, happened at Lionel Town, Clarendon where hosts team and last season beaten finalist Portland Cottage suffered a demoralizing 23-5 loss at the hands of another early season favourite in Bethabara of Manchester.
Goal-attack Kajone Murray and goal-shooter Briana Bercher led the scoring for Bethabara with the former registering 11 goals from 15 attempts, while the former scored nine from 13 tries.
Meantime, it was also good day for other home teams in other first-leg matches played elsewhere.
Portland’s Ken Wright Primary dispatched the challenge of neighbours Port Maria 14-5, while St James champions Corinaldi holds the advantage over Ulster Spring going into the return game next week after thrashing them 16-3 at the Mobay Cricket Club.
White Horses of St Thomas romped to a 12-4 victory at York Oval over St Ann’s Golden Grove, who will feel they have a slight chance of overturning the deficit in the second leg at Moneague Teachers’ College.
At the grounds of Hopewell High School, the visiting Petersfield edged Bethel 5-4 in a low-scoring game.
St Catherine representative Ensom City came away from Barbary Hall, St Elizabeth with the upper hand after beating host Black River 15-8.
It is still too close to call in the Rousseau versus wild card team Guys Hill with the former holding a very slender lead after edging today’s contest 12-11 in north St Catherine.
The return leg matches are set for January 22 and 24, with the winners advancing to the quarter-finals to be also played over two legs.