OLD Harbour High and St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) were crowned ISSA/Wata Rural Area Under-14 and Under-16 champions, respectively, as the ISSA football season ended at Manchester High School on Thursday afternoon.

Old Harbour High took the Under-14 title with a 3-0 win over Petersfield High, while STETHS edged last season’s all-island Under-16 champions Cornwall College 1-0 in extra time.

Atiba McKogg scored twice and Alex Johnson once for Old Harbour, while Romario Wright’s opportunistic goal in the first period of extra time did the trick for STETHS.

This was only Cornwall College’s second loss in two seasons, spanning almost 40 games. The previous loss came in the first round last year before they went on to win three titles — the Galloway Cup for the western end of the island, then beat Glenmuir High on penalty kicks for the all-rural before trouncing Wolmers Boys 7-0 for the all-island crown.

On Thursday, both winning coaches were looking forward to the all-island play-offs against the Urban Area champions Kingston College and Wolmer’s Boys, but because of a late start, the all-island games will not be played this year.

The finalists on Thursday had earned their places in the deciding games after semi-final wins on Tuesday; Old Harbour beat Vere Technical 1-0 and Petersfield got by Grange Hill 2-0 in the Under-14 section.

STETHS eliminated Manchester High 3-0 in their Under-16 game, while Cornwall College just got by a resilient Petersfield High team 1-0 in their semi-final.

After winning their previous 12 games this season and coming into the game as favourites, Cornwall College’s luck ran out in their 13th game.

Both Cornwall College and STETHS created good scoring chances, and while the Cornwall goalkeeper Jamario Hines pulled off a series of good saves to keep his team in the game, the Cornwall strikers Alrick Ottey, Jourdaine Fletcher, who had scored six goals in their previous three games, and Peter Lee Vassell all missed good scoring chances that would have seen them winning the game in regulation time.

Ironically, it was a mistake by Hines that led to the goal as after going high to cut off a cross, Hines allowed the ball to slip out of his hands and Wright reacted first to boot it into the wide open goal.

In the Under-14 game, Atiba McKogg scored twice in the ninth and 67th minutes for Old Harbour, who were winning their third football title after winning the Ben Francis Knockout in 2002 and the Rural Area Under-16 in 2006.

Old Harbour took advantage of a slow starting Petersfield team to jump out to a 2-0 lead after 21 minutes.