CATHERNE HALL, St James — After coming agonisingly close to their second qualification for the ISSA/Wata daCosta Cup final, losing to Cornwall College on penalty kicks after dictating the game for most of the 90 minutes, Frome Technical Coach Aaron Lawrence is now looking to the future.

Frome Technical, the ‘ugly duckling’ of the semi-finals against the swans of Clarendon College, Cornwall College and Dinthill Technical, earned the respect of the almost packed Montego Bay Sports Complex by playing their best game of the season and came close to upsetting Cornwall College in their semi-final played on Wednesday.

Frome was the only semi-finalist to have lost in the competition and the only team not to win their first-round group and only got into the semi-final ahead of Mile Gully High on more goals scored after they lost 1-2 to the Manchester High in the quarter-finals.

They held Cornwall College goalless for the first time dating back to the 2016 season when they were beaten 1-0 in back-to-back games, first by Wolmer’s Boys’ in the final of the then Super Cup and by Lennon High in the semi-finals of the Ben Francis KO, a span of 47 games but fell 2-4 in the penalty shoot-out.

“This game will help us build for next year [and] it will help to lift the school and the community. To come here and play so well in the semi-finals will give us a boost for next year,” a visibly emotional Lawrence told the Jamaica Observer after the game.

“We have a good core coming back. Most of the bench players will return and we have players who were unable to play this year, so we will be good,” the national Under-15 coach said.

Lawrence had sounded the warning weeks ago when, after losing to Camperdown High in the first round of the ISSA Champions Cup, he said his team was not to be underrated and they would use the time off to prepare and they showed it on Wednesday, matching Cornwall College in most areas.

“When it comes to the semis you have to be at your very best and plan for it. The time off gave us enough time to set up the team,” he said. “I am very pleased with the performance and the boys have given their all… penalty kicks can go anywhere, so we can’t feel too bad about that,” he said while consoling members of his team.

Lawrence’s game plan was not that hard to figure out.

“It was not to give Cornwall any time to play, to shut down Shavon McDonald, Aiden Jokomba and Solano Birch, and it worked… if you shut them down they won’t create chances, and it was only late in the game when legs were going they got their chances… I think we did wonderfully,” he noted.

“I am so proud of them and very excited about the performance. They showed what they could do, they showed Jamaica they can play good football. I am very disappointed in the finish but we can’t bash them — they gave their all,” Lawrence ened.

– Paul Reid