SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Lacovia High scored two last-gasp goals to beat Manchester High 2-1 in a dramatic daCosta Cup quarter-final game yesterday in Santa Cruz.

Leading marksman Romaine Walsh had given Manchester what looked like a certain winner when he tapped home in the 42nd minute.

But Lacovia High, the surprise team in this season’s competition, were not daunted and nicked a deserved equaliser in the 84th when Brandon Robinson finished off a good team goal.

The equaliser was nothing less than they deserved, and it served as the motivation they needed to clinch the winner, which arrived in stoppage time courtesy of a Nickoy Blake free kick.

Earlier, the Fitzroy Ambursley-conditioned team had crashed a header off the cross bar and missed a six-yard sitter, Oshane Sharpe sweeping his shot over the top, within minutes of each other.

Looking back, though, neither chance will matter much to Lacovia as they now sit at the top of Group P with a marginally better goal difference than Paul Bogle, who edged St James High 1-0 in the group’s other game.

“We always believed that we could win,” said Coach Ambursley in his post-game interview. “Because once we found out their weak spot we decided to penetrate it in the second half.

“We were creating the chances, so we knew all we needed to do was just to maintain our composure,” added an overjoyed Ambursley, who was reduced to tears midway the interview.

The Manchester coach, Donovan Duckie, admitted the defeat was a bitter pill to swallow, and he conceded that his team was undone by a worthy opponent.