The entire community of Mocho, in the hills of Clarendon, should still be celebrating last Friday’s historic ISSA/Flow Ben Francis KO victory by Lennon High School, who were in their first-ever final, and second senior football final in the school’s history.

However, it would be a classic case of irony should Clarendon College end the season without any silverware for the second-straight season, following their seventh daCosta Cup title in 2014.

In mid-October Clarendon gifted Lennon High a Zone H game, allowing them to advance ahead of Thompson Town.

Having already topped Zone H in the first round and securing their Inter-zone spot, Clarendon College rested most of their starters against a then badly struggling Lennon team, who won and edged Thompson Town by a point for the second place and other the Inter-zone spot.

It could be argued as well that Lennon, under the astute guidance of Coach Merron Gordon, rode their luck all the way to the Ben Francis KO title and into schoolboy football folklore.

Lennon High made their name in high schoolgirls’ football and was a national powerhouse for years. Their male counterparts, on the other hand, were lagging in the shadows of the more celebrated schools in the parish, such as Vere Technical, Clarendon College, Glenmuir High and even Garvey Maceo, all of whom had won either one of the three ISSA competitions – the daCosta Cup and Olivier Shield – which is the traditional symbol of all-island schoolboy supremacy, and the Ben Francis KO.

Since 1965 when Vere won the first of nine daCosta Cup titles over a 15 years span, Clarendon schools have won or shared 42 titles – 20 daCosta Cup crowns, 11 Ben Francis KO titles, eight Olivier Shields, and sharing three with their Manning Cup counterparts under the old home-and-away series.

However, Lennon High have kicked down the door and joined the party with an unlikely run at the title, before beating six-time defending champions St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) at Manchester High last Friday.

Lennon High scored one goal in each of their last seven games in both the daCosta Cup and Ben Francis KO competitions, winning four of the last five, with last week’s game which ended at 1-1 after regulation and extra time going into penalty kicks.

Coach Gordon, who was also the architect of their success with the female teams and once coached at the national level before stepping down, told the

Jamaica Observer West last week that it was not by chance they were doing so well, but a “scientific method of training” that saw them “peaking at exactly the right time”.

That may be so, but Gordon cannot deny a massive stroke of luck about five weeks ago that saw them escape elimination at the end of the first hurdle.

After a good start, winning their first two games by a combined 13-0 margin, Lennon High hit a skid, winning just two more games and drawing another with a 13-5 goal aggregate. They also lost 0-1 to Thompson Town in their return-round game after hammering them 5-0 in the first round.

After back-to-back losses to Thompson Town and Clarendon College, and a big wins over Knox College (9-0) and over Edwin Allen (5-0), Lennon were third in Zone H on 13 points, two behind Thompson Town, with Clarendon College sailing on with 21 points from seven straight wins and a 23-2 goal difference.

Obviously, with their eyes set on the rest of the season, thought they did not have to risk their top players in a game against Lennon High that could neither help nor hurt them.

As history will record, Lennon High won the twice-postponed first-round game 2-0, denying Thompson Town a first-ever Inter-zone berth, despite scoring just six goals in the school’s record five wins.

It would be dramatic irony of the highest order should a Lennon High team, brimming with confidence and growing in stature with every game, having had victory over more favoured teams, meet Clarendon College in the daCosta Cup finals in two weeks’ time.

In the semi-finals of the daCosta Cup on Saturday, Lennon High will face STETHS, again at Manchester High, a day after Clarendon College meet Cornwall College at STETHS.

Clarendon College have lost four games this year, including the one to Lennon High in Zone H; they were beaten 4-2 by Cornwall College in an epic FLOW Super Cup semi-finals on November 5, and four days later, after all but securing qualification to the semi-finals of the daCosta Cup and Ben Francis KO, rested players once more and were upset 1-2 by unheralded Spot Valley High.

On Monday, with their full team, Clarendon College crashed to a third loss, losing to STETHS in the semi-finals of the Ben Francis KO.

One can only guess how the string of losses will play on the minds of the players as they seek to salvage their season against another desperate team, Cornwall College, who have lost two games in a row as well.

Losing, as winning does, becomes a habit, sport analysts will tell.