Twelve for Cornwall College

WESTERN BUREAU:

Chants of "CC, CC" rang out after Cornwall College dethroned St Elizabeth Technical to secure a twelfth hold on the ISSA-FLOW daCosta Cup schoolboy football title, edging their rivals 2-1 at the Montego Bay Sports Complex yesterday.

It was a well-deserved victory for the new champions, who went undefeated in the daCosta Cup, and will now set sights on one more trophy when they tackle Manning Cup champions Jamaica College in Saturday's Olivier Shield.

Jordaine Fletcher netted his 29th daCosta Cup goal and his 36th of the season in all competitions to give Cornwall the lead.

Then a stunning strike from second-half substitute Shawn McDonald in time added on, at the end of 90 minutes, left no doubt who the 2016 champions would be.

STETHS' never-say-die attitude was missing for long stretches of the game, but it surfaced with practically the last kick of the match, when Demar James struck to pull a goal back in the 94th minute.

It was a case of too little too late for STETHS, who battled to the end in what ended up a trophy-less season for the first time in six five years.

THRILLED

Thrilled at the win, Dr Dean Weatherly, the Cornwall College head coach heaped praises on his players.

"It's been a long time coming; sixteen years is a long wait, and today, we gave it our all," said Weatherly.

"I did what I said we would do. Now ,I think I may just kick back, relax and consider resignation," the man known as Doc told The Sunday Gleaner.

Weatherly has been at the helm of the Cornwall College football squad for almost 25 years, in which time he has won for them several titles at the Under-16 and senior levels.

It was a game of two halves really, as STETHS dominated the first 45 minutes and can only blame themselves for not finding the back of the net.

James, who carried the main goalscoring threat for the Omar Wedderburn-coached team, was inconspicuous with his captain Chris-Andrew Dixon, his usual hard-tackling self in midfield.

With only two shots at goal in the first half, Cornwall then turned things completely around in the second half, with Peter-Lee Vassell and Fletcher leading the way.

Fletcher came close, not once, but twice before finally getting the better of the tiring STETHS defenders, when Vassell slipped but got up to slide him a pass. Fletcher then fired into the far corner to rousing appreciation from the mostly partisan Cornwall College crowd.

The noise was deafening when McDonald curved a beautiful shot out of the reach of the mishandling Kenroy Wallace in the STETHS goal.

Disappointed, Wendell Downswell, technical director for the STETHS team, described it as a tough loss.

"Congrats to Cornwall College for a spirited game; they are now the champions. I think they wanted it more. But we will be back next year," said Downswell.