THERE will be a new ISSA/LIME Manning Cup champion after Jamaica College and Wolmer’s Boys advanced to the final with contrasting wins over Excelsior High and St George’s College, respectively, at the National Stadium yesterday.

In arguably the match of the season, St George’s College (STGC) relinquished their title in a pulsating 4-3 penalty loss to Wolmer’s after playing to an exciting 4-4 draw after regulation and extra time.

Meanwhile, Jamaica College (JC) easily dispatched Excelsior 4-0 in the curtain-raiser, setting the stage for what should be another mouth-watering final against Wolmer’s on Saturday, November 23.

STGC, winner of the last two seasons, battled hard to hold their title coming from behind twice before taking what looked like the winning lead twice, but were pegged back by the Heroes’ Circle school in one of the most dramatic games with several twists.

Demar Rose, still mourning the death of his mother, opened the scoring for Wolmer’s in the 26th minute before national Under-20 striker Oshane Boothe pulled the ‘Light Blues’ level in the 31st minute. Five minutes later, an own goal restored Wolmer’s Boys’ lead before two goals in the 76th and 79th minutes by Boothe and Martin Davis gave STGC what looked like the winning advantage.

But Wolmer’s never relented and Kemario Osbourne sent the game into extra time, equalising in the 83rd minute.

With 20 minutes of extra time, captain Ryan Miller fired the defending champions into another lead in extra time scoring in the 92nd minute and with time running out, captain and former National Under-17 defender Kemo Wallace pulled Wolmer’s level in the 106th minute and into the dreaded penalty kicks.

The signs were not good for STGC, who lost last week to Excelsior in penalty kicks in the Walker Cup, and when the usually reliable Miller missed the first kick, the writing was on the wall. Boothe also missed the second as St George’s crashed out of the competition in dramatic fashion.

Successful kicks by Jaheel Hyde, Osbourne and Chavis Brooks had put Wolmer’s on the cusp of a famous victory, and despite Rennico Clarke missing their fourth kick, Hakeem Smith held his nerves and sent hundreds of Wolmer’s supporters into a frenzy.

Winning coach Ludlow Bernard said once it reached penalty kicks he was very confident of winning.

“All I wanted was one save. I was confident of five kicks. We knew we had to fight very hard to win this one. But my players have a never-say-die attitude and that is what is going to carry us through next Saturday when we play Jamaica College,” said Bernard.

Neville Bell, the STGC coach, thought his team played well and congratulated his conqueror. “If you give people room who can play football, they are going to hurt you and when we went ahead 4-3, even though the plan was to defend, I thought they backed off and allowed them some freedom at the top of the box and they scored,” Bell said.

In the curtain-raiser, JC thumped Excelsior 4-0 and gained sweet revenge for their Walker Cup defeat, which also had ended their unbeaten run.

National Under-17 captain Junior Flemmings notched his 19th and 20th goals of the season in the third and 51st minutes.

Rafiek Bryan got on the scoresheet in the 29th minute before Sheldon McKoy put the icing on the cake in the 70th.

Head coach Miguel Coley had no doubt his team would make it back to the final after losing to St George’s in 2011.

“Thanks to the power of technology we saw some weaknesses in this team and we utlised that today and came out on top,” said Coley.

Meanwhile, Leebert Halliman was peeved his team had to play four games in a short space of time and thought that was their downfall.

“This competition doesn’t help us at all, especially when you reach this stage. The playing field is not level because some teams get ‘x’ amount of rest, while I play four games in 11 days, and that hurt us,” he lamented.