CATHERINE HALL, St James — Hydel High held defending champions Jamaica College to a 1-1 draw in their opening ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup Zone F game played at the Montego Bay Sports Complex yesterday.

A 90th-minute penalty kick converted by Hydel High’s Kemar Reid cancelled out Javain Thompson’s 48th-minute goal that gave Jamaica College the lead.

The point could be a good omen for Hydel as the last time they played in an opening game, in 2012, they also drew their game and then went all the way to the finals.

Corey Bennett, the Hydel High coach, told the Jamaica Observer they were pleased with the point.

Hydel had just 15 players at their disposal yesterday as they had not been able to collect their identification cards in time and had to play without three of the regular starters.

“This will be a confidence boost for us,” Bennett said. “It’s a good point and we just have to build on this.”

It was a case of two points lost for Jamaica College, according to their coach Andrew Peart, who was taking over the program this year.

“We missed too many chances to score in the first half and this allowed Hydel to stay in the game being down just 1-0,” he said describing the last minute penalty as “careless.”

It was Hydel that had the better of the early chances but had to thank goalkeeper Shaquan Davis who pulled off a series of brilliant saves including a number of double saves against the hard-running Jamaica College team.

Two minutes after Davis blocked two chances Jamaica College had a clear shot at goal in the 17th minute but skied the ball over the bar from about 20 yards.

Hydel came close in the 29th minute, but Jamaica College’s custodian Khari Williams got his finger tips to a ball floated from the left side and tipped it over for a corner.

Another double save by Davis in time added at the end of the first half, kept the scores tied at 0-0.

Jamaica College finally managed to unlock the Hydel defence in the 48th minute when Thompson flicked a header past Davis from a corner.

The goal lifted the confidence of the Jamaica College team as they took the fight to Hydel but found Davis and the defence solid. and just before time ran out, luck smiled on Hydel when a Jamaica College defender handled the ball in his own area.

Reid buried the penalty kick to get his team off on a positive note as they fell back in a defense first posture to kill off the game.

In the ISSA/Wata daCosta Cup feature game at the venue, Rusea’s High beat Green Island High 4-0.