WESTERN BUREAU:

EIGHT-TIME champions Rusea's started their campaign in the ISSA/Pepsi/Digicel daCosta Cup in impressive fashion yesterday as they trounced Merlene Ottey 6-0 in their Zone B fixture at Cold Spring in Hanover.

In the game in which the Anthony 'Follies' Williams-coached 'Russians' looked silky smooth, they got their goals through Godfrey Cunningham, Radcliff Jarrett, Roydel Mon-crieffe, Rolando Kerr, Demar Lawrence and Rohan Temple.

Moncrieffe missed a chance to double his tally as he missed from the penalty spot midway through the second half.

Confidence builder

"We should have won by an even bigger margin, but six goals in one game can't be a disappointing result," said Williams. "This should be a big confidence builder going into our upcoming games."

Rusea's were not the only former champions to start their campaign with a win as Hopeton Gilchrist-coached Munro College clipped Black River 1-0 in their Zone E fixture. Jermaine Psalm was the man on target for Munro.

In their game, Rusea's started their demolition job in the third minute when Cunningham pounced on a loose ball before the goal and with goalkeeper Glenmar McFarlane at his mercy, calmly nodded out of his reach.

With the momentum in their favour and the Merlene Ottey defence looking shaky, Rusea's struck for a second time in the 11th minute. Goallkeeper McFarlane mishandled a long-range shot and an alert Jarrett slotted the rebound into the goal.

Midway through the half, another goalkeeping blunder saw the ball falling kindly for Moncrieffe and he calmly finished, making the half-time score 3-0.

Turned on the pressure

After missing a penalty midway through the second half, Rusea's turned on the pressure late in the game and fired in three goals in the last 12 minutes.

Kerr converted in the 78th minute, Lawrence got his name on the scoresheet in the 84th, while Temple sealed the issue two minutes later.

The competition takes a break today but resumes tomorrow with a full slate of matches.

Zone B

Rusea's 6 Merlene Ottey 0, Frome 3 Knockalva 1, Green Island 2 Hopewell 2. Zone D

Ocho Rios 3 York Castle 0.

Zone E

Lacovia 3 B.B. Coke 1, Munro 1 Black River 0, Maggotty 2 Balaclava 0.

Zone H

Vere 3 Claude McKay 1.

Zone L (a)

Fair Prospect 1 Titchfield 1, Port Antonio 0 Happy Grove 0.

Zone L (b)

R. Lightbourne 2 Morant Bay 0, St. Thomas Tech 1 Seaforth 0, Paul Bogle 2 Yallahs 0.