After gruelling battles in the FLOW Super Cup action over the weekend, Excelsior High and Holy Trinity returned to open their Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/FLOW Manning Cup second-round campaign positively after scoring identical 2-1 victories in their respective contests in Group H at Constant Spring field yesterday.

Goals from Cadine Graham (13th) and Tyrick Sutherland (53rd) gave Excelsior High a come-from-behind win over Jonathan Grant, who got their goal courtesy of a fifth-minute strike by Tahj Beckford.

Holy Trinity led by Shai Smith (26th) and substitute Orando Salmon (90th) got by Camperdown High in the feature game of the double-header. Nicolai Small (73rd) got the goal for the losing side.

It was a lopsided first half in the day’s feature, as Holy Trinity dominated possession and outplayed a flat-looking Camperdown team in the early exchanges. Phillip Graves got the first look at goal after beating a defender, but his shot from a long way out failed to test custodian Prince-Daniel Smith.

Camperdown responded shortly after when Tumekie Blackwood released a shot from inside the 18-yard area, but Kevaughn Ricketts in goal for Holy Trinity proved equal to the task.

Holy Trinity ensured that it would be the opponent’s only look at goal, as they broke the deadlock when Smith beat the advancing goalkeeper before slotting into an empty net, after being picked out by Lloyd Reynolds to make it 1-0 at the break.

The momentum dramatically shifted on the resumption with Camperdown pushing for the equaliser, but Holy Trinity did well to absorb the pressure and denied their opponents any real look at goal.

However, Camperdown inevitably pierced their armour when Blackwood broke down the left channel and picked out Small, who made no mistake from inside the area.

Despite going down to 10 players in the latter stages of the contest when Reynolds was shown a second yellow in the 87th minute, after earlier being cautioned in the 70th, the South Camp Road-based Holy Trinity fought back to notch the winner.

Salmon, who was inserted in the 73rd minute, fired home on the stroke of full time after being on the receiving end of a through pass from another substitute Jaban Howell.

Winning coach Devon Anderson was elated by the gutsy display of his team.

“It was a gritty performance from us, although I believe we should have led by three goals from the first half, but nevertheless we led at half-time and then succumbed to a soft goal in the second half, and Camperdown came at us. But we fought very hard and we pulled it out of the hat and I am pleased with these youngsters because they don’t know how to quit; they always keep fighting,” Anderson told journalists in a post-game interview.

His counterpart Christopher Bender was left disappointed.

“I thought the first half we played a little flat in terms of us creating chances, we didn’t create enough chances and we gave them a lot of space at times, but I sat them down half-time and we came back out and put them under pressure and we just didn’t capitalise. After scoring, sloppy defending cost us the game,” Bender lamented.

In the curtain raiser, Jonathan Grant grabbed the earlier ascendancy courtesy of Beckford, who expertly headed home from a corner. However, they failed to contain the in-form Excelsior who were back on level terms eight minutes later when Graham slotted home.

Excelsior asserted their authority and went in front eight minutes after the break when Sutherland headed in a well-weighted right-sided corner from Javon Bryce.

Today’s schedule

St Jago vs Hydel @ Constant Spring Field @ 1:00 pm

Jamaica College vs Denham Town @ Constant Spring Field @ 3:00 pm