ST Catherine High stayed perfect in Group E after beating Haile Selassie High 2-0 at the latter school’s playing field in ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup action yesterday.

Assanie Brown opened the scoring for St Catherine in the second minute before Marcovich Brown ensured they had a two-goal cushion at half-time with a 39th minute free-kick.

It was St Catherine’s fourth win on the bounce to keep them top with 12 points, while Haile Selassie are a distant third on four points. Excelsior High, 5-0 winners over St Mary’s College, are on 12 points, but they are second due to an inferior goal difference to St Catherine, who have played one game fewer.

Anthony Patrick, the St Catherine head coach, said getting the early goal against Haile Selassie put them in good stead as they otherwise struggled on a tough and bare surface.

“The good thing is that we got an early goal and that was important because we never got the time to settle and play. Selassie really ran at us and kept us busy. It was very difficult and we never got our passing game going, but they understand their field. Nevertheless, we withstood the pressure and the robustness of the game and got maximum points,” Patrick told journalists during a post-game interview.

Haile Selassie Head Coach Jermaine Miller felt his team deserved more out of the game after a battling effort.

“The result doesn’t really speak to the game itself. Again, we conceded in the second minute of play and that pushed us back. It was difficult for us to go down two-nil against a quality team like St Catherine and come back. We did restrict them from playing their free-flowing game, and besides conceding from those two set-pieces our goalkeeper didn’t have a save to make,” Miller told the Jamaica Observer.

St Catherine went ahead when Assanie Brown got on the end of a corner kick to turn into the Payne Land-based hosts’ goal.

Haile Selassie had a chance to equalise, but Roberto Freeman headed over the bar after St Catherine goalkeeper Raheem Henry failed to cleanly handle a corner.

The hosts had another good opportunity to draw level when Kevin Evans capitalised as St Catherine lost the ball trying to play short passes out of defence. To the disappointment of Haile Selassie supporters he scuffed his effort well wide.

At the other end, Marcovich Brown sent the visitors 2-nil up when his 39th-minute free-kick sailed over the head of goalkeeper Rushane Matthias and into the net.

Like the first half, the second period lacked quality and precision though both teams fought hard to create openings.

But in the end St Catherine appeared satisfied with managing their two-goal advantage by keeping Haile Selassie at bay.

YESTERDAY’S RESULTS

Group A

Tarrant 2, Papine 0

Cumberland 3, Cedar Grove 0

Group B

Clan Carthy 2, Dunoon 2

Mona 0, Kingston College 1

Ardenne 0, Calabar 4

Group D

Bridgeport 0, St Jago 2

Innswood 3, Greater Portmore 2

Tivoli Gardens 0, Denham Town 1

Group E

Penwood 1, Oberlin 1

St Mary’s College 0, Excelsior 5

Haile Selassie 0, St Catherine 2

Group F

Vauxhall 0, Hydel 1

Kingston High 0, Jamaica College 8

Campion 1, Kingston Technical 2

TODAY’S GAMES

Group A

St George’s vs St Andrew Technical (3:00 pm)

Group C

Charlie Smith vs Eltham

Meadowbrook vs Jonathan Grant

Camperdown vs Norman Manley

Group G

Wolmer’s vs Jose Marti

Holy Trinity vs Waterford

Pembroke Hall vs Edith Dalton James

( Home teams named first. All games start 3:30 pm unless otherwise stated)

— Sanjay Myers