WOLMER’S Boys’ School opened the second round of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/LIME Manning Cup football competition with a 1-0 win over Calabar High, while many-time champions St George’s College had a disappointing start after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Haile Selassie High in the Group H double-header at Constant Spring playing field yesterday.

Wolmer’s now lead the group with three points with St George’s College being joined by Haile Selassie on one point each, while Calabar will have to play catch-up, being rooted at the bottom without a point.

The feature game between Wolmer’s and Calabar was expected to be a close encounter and it lived up to its billing, despite causing a few yawns in-between. Wolmer’s took the lead in the very first minute of the game, thanks to a own goal by Calabar’s defender Kavane Thompson, whose intended pass bounced over the head of goalkeeper Andrew Thomas, who tried to backtrack after finding himself out of position.

Despite the error, it was the Red Hills Road-based boys who were the more attacking outfit and enjoyed the better of play for the first 35 minutes of the game. However, it was not long before Wolmer’s settled into their game and put together a string of passes in attack which pushed their opponents on the back foot to end the first half 1-0 up.

The game had been halted for nine minutes earlier after Calabar’s goalkeeper Thomas went down and was motionless from a heavy challenge in an attempt to retrieve the ball from a corner kick. The medical team on hand did its assessment before transporting the injured player to the hospital with a suspected neck and lower spinal cord injury.

The Heroes Circle-based boys upped the tempo after the resumption and went on a flurry of attacks through their talismanic player Jaheel Hyde, who appeared a bit selfish at times. Hyde had close to eight opportunities to pick out a teammate in the box, but opted to shoot at goal instead.

Calabar had a few chances of their own but could not get one past Shamar Jemison in goal for Wolmer’s.

The curtain-raiser between St George’s College and Haile Selassie failed to spark any fireworks as the North Street based team looked a shadow of their usual attacking outfit. Stephon Gilzene gave St George’s the lead through a 15th-minute strike that was helped in by Haile Selassie’s goalkeeper Chevaun Bennett.

However, Haile Selassie, who are making it to this stage of the competition for the first time in the school’s history, would get the equaliser in the 23rd minute when Jurian Lewis went on a brilliant individual run and displayed some skills to elude two defenders before slotting home.