STETHS draw first blood against 10-man Cornwall

THE OMAR ‘Rambo’ Wedderburn-coached St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) defeated Cornwall College yesterday, coming away 3-2 winners to begin their ISSA/WATA daCosta Cup second-round group stage at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay.

STETHS’s D’Andre Hibbert opened the scoring in the 14th minute but the lead did not last long as Cornwall College’s Raheem Lee equalised in the 52nd. Antoine Smith would put STETHS ahead in the 76th minute but Cornwall’s Dane Buckley would quickly level the scores in the 79th minute. STETHS would go on to have the final say when Donte Campbell’s 88th minute goal turned decider.

Cornwall dominated the first half. However, Hibbert took advantage of a poor clearance to rocket home his effort in the 14th.

In the 42nd minute, Cornwall College’s Matthew Wilson earned a second caution in the space of 10 minutes to leave the home team short on resources.

Still, it was 10-man Cornwall who struck first, with Lee’s 52nd-minute equaliser, a header, a rebound from Lincoln Cox’s shot on to the crossbar.

76TH-MINUTE GOAL

STETHS then must have been seeing the light at the end of the tunnel when smith tapped in a 76th-minute effort to give them the lead.

But neither did the 10 men of Cornwall nor the crowd quit and Buckley, controlling a beautiful pass in the 79th stayed composed to level the affair.

But STETHS would not leave it there, Campbell jumping highest from a corner to head home the decider.

“Honestly, today we came here to get all three points because it was not going to be an easy game. We conditioned our minds to go all the way. I think today is a true reflection of our school motto ‘Work and integrity’ and we came here with that belief and it paid dividends,” said Wedderburn.

“We played a brilliant game today. As I tell the boys, we collected all three points and that is our belief and that is what we doing,” Wedderburn said.

“As for Cornwall, getting a red card, anytime you go down, that strength become the other 10 players, so as I say before our beauty is to collect our three points,” he added.

Dr Dean Weatherly, coach of Cornwall College, said his team should have won the encounter from in the first 15 minutes.

“Going down 10 men so early, in anything you know playing in a good game against good quality teams like STETHS, you know is one for concern. Based on the number of chances, we got and how we played. It is unfortunate that we didn’t sink our chances,” said Weatherly.

“We are going back to the drawing board. The youths have to learn to be more proactive, especially when we are in the 18-yard box. We have to take our chances from early and make a statement. We definitely are getting there.

“We needed to use our killer instinct and make use of those chances, and that is what killed us today.”