Cavalier SC carved out and exciting come-from-behind 3-2 win over rivals Harbour View FC on Saturday to keep alive their hopes of defending the Alliance/MoneyGram KSAFA Under-17 title they won last year.

The Rudolph Speid-coached team were on the brink of elimination when trailing 1-2 at half-time but vanquished their opponents with two goals shortly after the restart.

Speid believes the extra quality his players possess was the reason for getting past the challenge Harbour View posed.

“It was a nervy win for us against Harbour View because we had to come from behind twice to get the win. We didn’t train since we came back and today we didn’t have about three of our better players, so we were a little bit worried. but we have quality so we were able to come from behind whenever it was required.”

Dwayne “Busy” Atkinson was a real live wire in attack for Cavalier, and his coach believes that the Kingston College student is special.

“He (Atkinson) is the next big thing in soccer and we just have to try and protect him and bring him up the right way. He is such a good player, not just in offence, but you can see that his does his share of the work in defence.

“Rarely [will] you find a player that has that amount of skill in offence come back and help out in defence. A lot of those squares (crosses) that came in, he was back there heading them out so this is a player that is so special; he is all-round. He is prepared to do the work at both ends and that is why he is so special to us,” said Speid.

The Cavalier boss knows that Boys’ Town pose a real threat but will be taking the game to his opponents in the final.

“I have to make sure I get all my players back for the final. I have never seen Boys’ Town play, I didn’t even get to look at them play a lot today (Saturday), but they have shown that they can score a lot of goals so we have to be wary of that.

“But Cavalier, we are entertaining, we come to win, and we come to play every day- and Boys’ Town will have their hands full also trying to contain us. We are going to be coming after them because we are not going to give away our title just like that,” he promised.

Boys’ Town’s coach Leon Hardware lamented the inconsistent performance of his team, which was beyond his control.

“We could have put the game away from the first half because we got three or four clear-cut chances. We played in patches because we haven’t trained together for the last two weeks. Most of the boys are in camp with their Manning Cup and daCosta Cup teams, so we didn’t train together at all.”

Making the final is a big step for the team from Collie Smith Drive.

“I am very pleased we have made it to the final. Last year Cavalier beat us at the quarter-final 5-0, so to reach the final it’s a joy, both for me and for the boys.”

Like their opponents in the final, Boys’ Town possess a tricky winger in Omar Reid, but Hardware believes that the player needs to be more in control of his temperament for the team to win.

“I am pleased with his performance but he needs to cool down a little bit. His performance was good, he has a nice work rate, he works well with Donald Walters — but when it comes to pressure he needs to cool down,” Hardware explained.

Both teams will go in hunt of glory when the final is played on Saturday at 4:00 pm at Excelsior High school field.