Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth — Eye-catching goals from Kristoff Murray in the 25th minute and Ronaldo Webster in the 75th gave St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) a 2-0 victory over arch-rivals Munro College in their ISSA/Wata daCosta Cup clash at the STETHS Sports Complex Saturday.

The victory kept five-time daCosta Cup winners STETHS atop Zone E of the competition while Munro, among the dominant forces in Jamaican schoolboy football decades ago, are left with only a slim, mathematical chance of avoiding first round elimination.

Before a large crowd, under cloudy skies and in good under-foot conditions, the two youthful sides seemed evenly matched throughout an error-prone first half.

With 15 minutes gone, Munro supporters roared in anticipation but Joel Bailey headed wide from point blank range. In the 22nd minute, Rohane Brown of STETHS kicked high when he should have at least tested the keeper.

Then three minutes later, crisp combination work through the centre of the Munro defense set up Murray who though under pressure calmly slotted home, right-footed, to leave the home crowd in rapture.

STETHS seemed to improve in terms of pace and inventiveness in the second half even as Munro appeared to fade with several players struggling with cramps. The second goal followed sustained pressure from the home side, Webster soaring high to elegantly head home a corner kick from the right.

There was unwanted drama immediately after the final whistle as Munro’s Damian Jones was shown a red card by referee Derron Davey for “insulting and abusive language towards the referee…”

STETHS coach Omar Wedderburn noted that while his team was “pretty young” they were “not too young to go out and win games and the more they win, the better they will get”. He paid tribute to Munro for offering stiff competition. “We didn’t expect any less from Munro… I think they came and did justice to football,” he said.

The highly successful veteran Jackie Walters in his first season as coach of Munro said that while his team would now have to depend on the fortunes of others, there would still be a “serious attempt” to qualify from the first round.

He emphasised however that Munro with “an average of 16” was in “a rebuilding phase”.

Considered until fairly recently as likely contenders this season, Munro lost several top players to other schools and has also been hit by injury.

— Garfield Myers

USE SCHOOLBOY FOOTBALL MASTHEAD