Calabar's Ricardo Latibeadiere (centre), leads the celebration after his team scored an extra-time goal to beat Bridgeport High 1-0 in their Walker Cup semi-final at the National Stadium yesterday. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)

Calabar High and Jamaica College (JC) scored identical 1-0 victories over Bridgeport and Excelsior High, respectively, at the National Stadium yesterday to set up a mouth-watering Walker Cup final at the same venue tomorrow.

Red Hills Roads-based Calabar beat Bridgeport in extra-time through an Odain Sinclair strike, while JC stopped Excelsior courtesy of Anthony Grant's 34th-minute goal.

Interestingly, the final will pitch a JC side consisting of four players from last season's Calabar team, which includes former captain of the 2005 Manning Cup and Oliver Shield winning side, Robert Palmer, who missed yesterday's game through suspension.

The others are playmaker Ramone Palmer, Kemal Bedward and Adrian Christian. They will face-off against their former team-mates in what is expected to be a keenly-contested affair.

According to one Calabar fan, "Wagga had predicted this", and for JC coach, Alfred Henry, the match will be an emotional one as the late Calabar coach, David Hunt, was a close and longtime friend and Calabar are also out to win the trophy for their former coach.

In the feature match, JC College looked the more threatening of the teams at the start and went ahead after half-an-hour when Grant raced onto a ball played over the Excelsior defence and shot across goalkeeper Ameal Douglas into the far corner.

Excelsior had little to show in the first half, but ended the game strongly with Alanzo Adlam, Severo Murphy and Valentino Fogo all getting good chances to salvage a goal.

Earlier, Calabar continued on their quest to win the Walker Cup - the only title that eluded Hunt during his three-and-a-half-year tenure - after getting by Manning Cup holders Bridgeport.

In an entertaining affair, both teams had good goalscoring chances, but neither capitalised at the end of regulation time.
But five minutes into the second period of extra-time, Sinclair's side-footer from 25 yards slipped from goalkeeper Geovanni Smith's grasp and sneaked over the line.

Tastee Talent Trail finalists prepare for the big night

Are You Afraid Of Your Financial Future?

Good support in Bounty Hall for Heineken's 'Bond' road show