CATHERINE HALL, St James — First-time qualifiers Excelsior High held their nerves to beat St James High 6-5 on sudden death penalties in their first round ISSA/Flow Super Cup game at the Montego Bay Sports Complex Saturday evening.

After the teams were tied 1-1 after regulation and extra time and 5-5 after their first five spot kicks, Excelsior’s goalkeeper Romario Palmer became the hero of his team as he saved Shemar Luckane’s kick.

Moments earlier, Raewin Senior had scored for Excelsior to give them the edge.

Ronaldo McLeish had given St James High the lead in the first half before the dreadlocked Thorne Buchanan drew Excelsior level midway the second half.

Excelsior’s win tilted the scales in favour of the Manning Cup schools who won five of the eight games contested in the first round as defending champions Jamaica College, St George’s College, Wolmer’s Boys, and St Jago High all won.

St Elizabeth Technical, semi-finalists last year, Clarendon College and Glenmuir will carry the hopes of the rural area teams going into next Saturday’s second round.

The quarter-final match-ups will be Glenmuir vs St Georges College and Clarendon College against Wolmer’s at Sabina Park and STETHS vs St Jago and Excelsior vs Jamaica College at the National Stadium.

On Saturday, St James High, who were losing in the first round for the second straight season, had only themselves to blame for missing a number of good scoring chances before running out of steam midway the second half against a well organised Excelsior team.

The Montego Bay team, who enjoyed good crowd support, had the better of the chances in the first half, but only had McLeish’s poke in from very close in the 39th minute to show at half-time.

A ball was swung in from the right side and fell just behind Palmer and in the path of two St James High strikers on the far post, and after Taviek McNeil missed the first chance, McLeish pushed it into the goal.

McNeish should have doubled the scores two minutes later when he had time to pick his spot just outside the 18-yard box, but lifted the ball just over the crossbar.

Excelsior had a good chance to level the scores just after the start of the second half when Senior faced goalkeeper Aian Miller, but hesitated and allowed a defender to take the ball away.

McNeil had two good chances to score within a two-minute span, but came up short on both. On the first, he was sent through in the 52nd minute, but over dribbled and saw Palmer come off his line in a flash to intercept the ball about 10 yards from the goal.

A minute later, Palmer dropped the ball at the striker’s feet, but McNeil, with just the goalkeeper to beat, kicked the ball on to the custodian, who gladly held on at the second attempt.

St James would pay dearly for the mistakes as Buchanan overlapped from his left-back position and headed home the equaliser in the 69th minute, injuring himself in the process.

McNeil had yet another chance in the 87th minute that would have won the game for St James when he skipped past two defenders, but once again his finish was found wanting and he shot wide of the target.