ST George’s College (STGC) and Excelsior High both scored exciting wins over Calabar High and Wolmer’s Girls, respectively, in the finals of the Jamaica Lacrosse Association (JLA) High schools competition at St Hugh’s High recently.

STGC were made to work hard for the win by a determined Calabar team that pushed the champions all the way. Calabar had won the only meeting between the two teams earlier this season and were confident that they could lift the title for the first time.

The “Light Blues”, who are the most dominant force in high school lacrosse in the country, had other ideas and took the game to the boys from Red Hills Road at the outset. They quickly established a lead and appeared in control of the game up to half-time.

But Calabar stormed back in the second half, stifling the STGC offence while racking up the goals for themselves as their captain Joel Xubawon led from the front. They came within a point of their opponents at 10-11, with just three and a half minutes left in the game, before the STGC team found a late response.

The Damion McKenzie-coached team scored five unanswered goals to win 16-10, as their captain Donahugh Simpson took the game by the scruff of the neck. Simpson’s six goals in the final helped his school regain the trophy they lost to Kingston College (KC) last year. St George’s have won the title five times, with KC being the only other winner.

Simpson, who was playing his final season, was delighted to steer his team to victory. “It felt great because it shows that I have the qualities to lead the team,” he said.

McKenzie said the plan for Calabar worked perfectly in the first half.

“Calabar was the only team that beat us in the regular season…the game plan was to stop the Calabar runs and block out their main attacker from scoring — and it worked like a charm in the first half.”

The STGC old boy had to adjust the team strategy in the second half to get his boys over the line.

“Calabar changed their strategy in the second half so we slowed down the game a little bit, looked for the openings, and took high percentage shots. Patience paid off for us in the end.”

In the girls’ final, Excelsior were able to see off the challenge from Wolmer’s to retain the title they won for the first time last year.

The champions, who had beaten Wolmer’s quite easily earlier this season, found their opponents a much more difficult nut to crack in the final. Wolmer’s had a response for everything that the Amanda Graham-Golding-coached team threw at them in the first half that ended 6-6.

Excelsior returned a much different team in the second half and their obvious quality shun through. In Gabrielle Small and Alicia Thaxter, Excelsior have two of the best players in the competition, as they who took control of the game in the latter half to ensure the trophy returned to 137 Mountain View Avenue.

Excelsior dominated their opponents at both ends in the second half, allowing just one goal while scoring six to run out 12-7 winners.

Graham-Golding disclosed that it was the half-time team talk that made all the difference for her team.

“It started out really, really rough. My girls went out there overconfident but after a while we regained our strength and we were victorious in the end.

“At half-time I asked them to calm down and enjoy their game. They weren’t enjoying their game and when I told them to enjoy the game they started playing exceptionally well. They played a great game.”

She expressed pride in being able to defend the title won last year.

“I am excited…it’s really hard to defend your championship and these girls really made me proud.”

In the third-placed games played at the same venue, 2018 champions KC had to overcome a spirited Jamaica College to earn the bronze medal with a 12-7 win. St Hugh’s High took the girls’ equivalent with a 10-7 win over Alpha Academy.