THEIR third daCosta Cup title in the bag, newly crowned rural area champions St Elizabeth Technical (STETHS) has little time to celebrate as they turn their attention to the first leg of the allisland Olivier Shield play-off against Manning Cup champions St George’s College in Santa Cruz tomorrow.

On Saturday at Jarrett Park, STETHS won their third daCosta Cup title after edging first time finalists Manchester High 1-0, thanks to a second half goal from prolific striker Deshorn Brown.

St George’s College, who are the defending all-island champions, has had a long lay off since beating Bridgeport High in the Manning Cup final the previous week and will be well rested for tomorrow’s game.

In front of a standing room only crowd and under clear blue skies and hot temperatures, Brown scored his 25th goal of the season and 10th since the start of the Inter-zone round to give coach Andrew Edwards his first ever title in his second season at the Santa Cruz based school.

An overwhelmed Edwards dedicated the title to his late wife Janeise Blair-Edwards who passed away earlier this year but said the feeling was “Almost unbelievable, I am feeling happy and elated cant explain the feeling.”

Brown he said was the key to the victory saying, “We knew that wherever Deshorn went the Cup would go too,” adding “he wanted it badly and told us he “wanted to leave something here wanted to leave a legacy.”

The pre-game strategy he said was “To do what we do best, keep our defensive organisation intact (and) we are sure offense would take us through.”

Losing coach Barry Watson in his first final and the school’s first was obviously disappointed but gave credit to his team, The guys worked hard but we had some injuries and they acted up in the final.”

The biggest blow to the Manchester team was an injury that eventually forced top striker Jason Johnson off the field in the 70th minute to be replaced by Oral Johnson.

Johnson’s substitution Watson said, “it affected us badly, he is our main goalscorer and when he went off we had a lot of problems.”

Except for Brown’s goal and two good saves by the Manchester High goalkeeper Michael Parcells in the first half, the game itself had little that will stand out.

Jason Johnson had two good chance to score early after he shot a rebound from the STETHS goalkeeper Gregory McKogg wide in the 14th minute and six minutes later he shot wide again after McKogg had knocked down another shot.

Parcells was tested in the 22nd minute when he just managed to get his gloves to a long range shot from Kemar Morgan, to tip it over for a corner.

Brown, who was being closed marked by Orlando Platt, had his first chance in the 38th minute when he shook off two defenders but Parcells was off his line in a flash to block his, hurting himself in the process.

Brown scored nine of his teams 15 goals since the start of the Inter-zone round coming into the game, made his presence felt when he finished off a superb move in the 75th minute.

Kevon Farquharson created some space on the right side but instead of shooting at goal, saw Brown to his left in the centre of the goal and passed to him.

The big forward controlled the ball and turned nicely before beating Parcells to his right with a well-taken shot.

With time running out, the STETHS team fell back into their own half, inviting the Manchester team to come at them but without Johnson to lead them the STETHS defence held on to the end.