Ten-man Holy Trinity High handed Charlie Smith High a 2-1 defeat at Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex yesterday to take sole leadership of Group E in the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association/FLOW Manning Cup competition

Holy Trinity, who move to 18 points, went down to 10 players in the 65th minute after Fabbrizio Burton received marching orders from referee Keble Williams for a foul on an opponent.

This seemed only to incense the eventual winners as they redoubled their efforts to hand Charlie Smith a second defeat in the group with a goal in each half from Shai Smith 45th and Jabari Howell 75th (penalty). Tyrick Reid opened the scoring for Charlie Smith in minute 18 from a one-to-one situation with goalkeeper Antonio Millington.

Four minutes earlier, Rojae Welsh failed from a similar one-to-one situation to put Holy Trinity ahead.

In the top-of-the-table clash, both teams were locked on 15 points, but the win gave Holy Trinity a three-point advantage to leave them sole leaders.

Charlie Smith’s Coach Jerome Waite conceded they were beaten by the better team on the day.

“It was a tough loss, but overalI [I] have to give the Holy Trinity team the credit. They looked the better team on the day and played with greater purpose. We missed a number of good scoring chances, but they defend with an iron will. We remain in second place, on 15 points but we still have a chance to make it to the second round,” Waite pointed out.

Winning coach Devon Anderson was pleased with his team’s tenacity.

“It was a dogfight between the two teams and we came out victors. As you can see, we went down to ten men at 1-1, but we never gave up. Having the man short just seemed to motivate us and we fought on,” Anderson said.

—Hurbun Williams

—Hurbun Williams