Munro, Cornwall lift schoolboy titles
MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Cornwall College retained their ISSA/Freshhh Rural Area Under-14 title, while Munro College won their second Under-16 title in three years with contrasting victories over Garvey Maceo High and Vere Technical, respectively, at Manchester High on Friday.
Kamali Powell scored twice for Cornwall, who held off Garvey Maceo 5-3 in a shootout, while Munro edged Vere 1-0.
Both Rural Area champions will now face Urban Area champions Jamaica College in the all-island play-off later this week. The date and venue is yet to be decided.
Cornwall College, who are also the defending all-island champions, got off to a flying start and raced to a 3-0 lead by the 26th minute. Garvey Maceo clawed their way back first to 1-3, then to 2-4 at half-time, and came to within a goal at 3-4 early in the second half, but failed to get level and were caught on the counter late in the game.
Powell, who was part of the team that was unbeaten last season on its way to the double, sent the Montego Bay school ahead after just five minutes when he dribbled into the box and beat goalkeeper Christmar Maxwell with a well-placed shot.
Powell missed high from just outside the box in the 12th minute, but Darnell Brissett was on target in the 17th minute and Cornwall College were flying when Powell headed home past Maxwell in the 26th minute.
Garvey Maceo pulled one back in the 31st minute when Javoy McKenzie got through the middle of the defence and hammered the ball past the Cornwall College goalkeeper Christopher Bernard.
Brandon Timberlake restored Cornwall College’s three-goal advantage two minutes later when he bulled his way past the Garvey Maceo defence and punched the ball past Maxwell.
The Clarendon school did not let up, however, and pulled one back just before half-time when Christopher Mundle scored to made the scores 4-2.
Garvey Maceo upped the tempo in the second half and put Cornwall College’s defence under pressure. They were rewarded when Cleo Clarke poked one past Bernard four minutes into the restart to pull them to within a goal of tying up the game.
Garvey Maceo came close a few times, but Raheim Russell, Clarke and Mundle were all off target and Cornwall wrapped up the game and the title in added time when Davian McLean, who was a second-half substitute, rifled home a volley that hit the post at the back of the goal and came back out like a bullet.
In the Under-16 game the faster Munro College players dominated the encounter, but had only Akeem Clarke’s opportunistic 18th-minute goal to show. It turned out to be enough.
A shot from Chander-Paul Dehaney came back off the crossbar and Clarke was well placed just feet from the goalline to poke it into the goal, just out of reach of the Vere Technical goalkeeper Nicholas Frater.
It was Munro College’s second title in three years after they won in 2015, beating Cornwall College on penalty kicks at St Elizabeth Technical.