SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — A 10th-minute goal from striker Ronardo Burgher was enough to secure a 1-0 win for Kingston College over Manning’s School at the quarter-final stage of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) Champions Cup at the STETHS Sports complex yesterday.

Meanwhile, the day’s curtain-raiser resulted in Dinthill Technical High swamping St Andrew Technical High School 5-1 in an impressive display, thanks to a hat-trick from Jaheim Thomas.

In an evenly contested encounter in the feature event, it was the North Street-based institution that took matters under control early and placing Manning’s on the defensive. The early pressure brought rewards as an inswinging free-kick from the mercurial Christopher Pearson found the left foot of Burgher at the front post to steer his shot wide of Ashwani Campbell in the Manning’s goal.

Manning’s almost replied shortly after a brilliant crossfield ball from Rushawn Gordon split the KC defence. With the goal at his mercy, striker Jhamaro Hall fired wide.

Kingston College made good progress down their right hand side with captain Jemone Barclay dribbling inside and forcing the goalkeeper to save twice, one from a low shot and the other at medium height that was pushed wide for a corner.

Although the Ludlow Bernard-coached outfit made the more telling efforts on goal Manning’s still had chances of their own but either failed to shoot or shot wide.

On the resumption after the half-time interval, the light blue-clad school from Savanna-la-Mar immediately made their intentions clear with the ever-threatening Devonte Rodney forcing goalkeeper David Martin to push over his crossbar.

It was Manning’s dominant possession from then on with Kingston College pretty much playing on the counter-attack but failing to make use of the numerous chances they had with Burgher, Barclay and Watson failing to capitalise.

Coach of Manning’s Everton Tomlinson was pleased with his team’s performance but disappointed with the result. “I don’t think this Kingston College team is way ahead of us. I think if we had the confidence to compete against them, the fact that they are former champions and have a big name, we had to work hard to get the team to believe in themselves and that belief would have taken them over the hill.”

Ludlow Bernard, on the other hand, was very happy with the result but not so much the performance of this team. “I thought we could have caught them on the counter, and really punish them a little bit more. We kept them in the game and as the game got longer their confidence grew, but at the end of the day a solid result,” he said.