St James High goalscorer Nicholi Barrett in action during yesterday's Ben Francis Cup KO semi-final against Lacovia High at Jarrett Park. St James won 2-1. - Photo by Adrian Frater
Western Bureau:
St James High School and Dinthill Technical earned the right to contest this Saturday's Ben Francis Knockout schoolboy football final, when they emerged from yesterday's semi-final games against Lacovia High and Old Harbour High with contrasting victories.
At Jarrett Park: It took a last- minute extra-time goal by Allan Ottey to give St James High a 2-1 win over gutsy Lacovia, in what was a keenly contested game.
St James had taken an early lead through Nicholi Barrett, but Lacovia fought back stoutly to pull level through Kemar Brown.
"It was a very tough game because our opponents played quite well. But we showed a lot of character and kept battling away all the way," said Pastor Hugh Solomon, the coach of the St James High team. "Now that we have gotten this far, our next mission is to complete the job in the final."
In the game at the Spanish Town Prison Oval, Dinthill Technical surprised the more fancied Old Harbour, and not only ended their unbeaten run, but did so in emphatic style, clobbering them 3-0, courtesy of goals by Rajay Bennett, Detroy Perez and Allliste Redding.
Confident and ready
"As I told you in the pre-game interview, we were confident and ready and knew that we were quite capable of beating Old Harbour," said Everton Burke, the manager of the Dinthill team. "Having seen them in the preseason game we played against them, we knew what we had to do to get the better of them."
At Jarrett Park, the game started at a hectic pace with action swinging from end to end.
St James came close to grabbing the lead in the fifth minute when Ajohn Barker nodded wide from close range. Three minute later, Lacovia came storming back when a 25-yard free kick by Brown flew inches wide.
With the momentum swinging in their favour, St James took the lead in the 20th minute. A vicious corner kick by Barrett curled past the bewildered Lacovia defenders and goalkeeper and crashed into the roof of the net, making the score 1-0.
With Lacovia fighting and hunting the equaliser, St James just missed doubling their lead in the 38th minute. A superb 35 yards free kick by skipper Fabian McHarthy sailed ominously goalward, but struck the crossbar and rebounded into play.
Lacovia pulled themselves back into the game with three minutes remaining in the half. Oral Green split the St James defence with a neat dribble and crossed perfectly to Brown, who calmly slotted home to make the half-time score 1-1.
The second half was fast paced and exciting with both teams taking turn in having the advantage. However, faulty finishing was the end result as promising attacks came to nothing. Regulation time ended with the teams still locked at 1-1.
With the first period of extra time yielding no goals and time running out in the second period, St James got the all-important clincher with a minute to go when Ottey won possession in a goal-mouth scramble and slotted home, making the final score 2-1.