MONTEGO BAY, St James — St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) won their third ISSA/Pepsi/Digicel daCosta Cup title after edging Manchester High 1-0 in the final at Jarrett Park yesterday.

Infront of a standing room-only crowd and under clear blue skies and hot temperatures, Deshorn Brown came up with the goods with a second-half goal to give coach Andrew Edwards his first title in only his second season at the Santa Cruzbased school.

The goal was Brown’s 25th of the season and his 10th since the start of

the Inter-zone as he secured the Golden Boot Award for the competition’s topscorer.

An overwhelmed Edwards dedicated the title to his late wife Janeise Blair-Edwards who passed away earlier this year, but said the feeling was “almost unbelievable; I’m feeling happy and elated can’t explain the feeling”.

According to Edwards, Brown was the key to victory.

“We knew that wherever Deshorn went the Cup would go too… He wanted it badly and told us he wanted to leave something here; wanted to leave a legacy,” he said.

Edwards said the pre-game strategy was “to do what we do best — keep our defensive organisation intact (and) we’re sure offence would take us through”.

Losing coach Barry Watson, in his first final and the school’s first as well, was obviously disappointed, but gave credit to his team.

“The guys worked hard, but we had some injuries and they acted up in the final,” he said.

The biggest blow to the Manchester team was an injury which eventually forced top striker Jason Johnson off the field in the 70th minute, to be replaced by Oral Johnson.

Johnson’s substitution, according to Watson, “affected us badly. He is our main goalscorer and when he went off we had a lot of problems”.

Except for Brown’s goal and two good saves by the Manchester goalkeeper Michael Parcells in the first half, the game itself had little that will stand out.

Johnson had two good chances to score early after he shot a rebound from STETHS goalkeeper Gregory McKogg wide in the 14th minute, and six minutes later, he again shot wide after McKogg had knocked down another shot.

Pacells was tested in the 22nd minute when he just managed to get his glove to a long-range shot from Kemar Morgan to tip over for a corner.

Brown, who was being closed marked by Orlando Platt, had his first chance in the 38th minute when he shook off two defenders, but Parcells was off his line in a flash to block him, hurting himself in the process.

Brown, who scored nine of his teams 15 goals since the start of the Inter-zone round coming into yesterday’s game, made his presence felt when he finished off a superb move in the 75th minute.

Kevon Farquharson created some space on the right side, but instead of shooting at goal, saw Brown to his left in the centre of the goal and passed to him.

The big forward controlled the ball and turned nicely before beating Parcells to his right with a well-taken shot.

With time running out, the STETHS team fell back into their own half, inviting the Manchester team to come at them, but without Johnson to torment them, the STETHS defence held on to the end.

Meanwhile, Munro College took the ISSA Rural Area Under-16 title earlier after beating Lennon High 4-1 in the curtain-raiser.

Shawnavan deSouza and Amin Miller both scored twice for the Galloway Cup champions in their win over the Dr Abner Wright Cup champions.

Munro will now face the Urban Area champions for the all-island title.

Cornwall College won the Rural Area Under-14 title last Thursday, beating William Knibb Memorial 3-0 in Falmouth.