CATHERINE HALL, St James — In-form Brandon Curate scored a stoppage-time penalty kick as defending champions Cornwall College clawed their way back into Saturday’s ISSA Champions Cup quarter-final game at Montego Bay Sports Complex, before beating St George’s College 3-2 in a dramatic penalty shoot-out.

Curate, who has scored Cornwall College’s last five goals in regulation and added time, reprised his heroic role from a week earlier when his free kick in added time carried Cornwall College to a 1-0 win over Charlie Smith High at the same venue. On Saturday, he calmly brought his team level before giving them the lead by scoring the first kick in the shoot-out.

The win sets up a repeat of the semi-final in 2016 when Cornwall College outscored Clarendon College. Kingston College, who also had an added time win over Frome Technical in the first game of the double-header, will meet Jamaica College in the other semi-final in Kingston on Saturday.

Nathaniel Campbell gave St George’s College the lead from the penalty spot in the 63rd minute. And just when it appeared the Manning Cup team would avenge their defeat in the semi-finals last season, the game turned after Cornwall College earned a penalty of their own deep into stoppage time. At 1-1 it set up more drama in the shoot-out.

Cornwall College’s Calvin Stephenson missed his kick twice after he was allowed to retake his shot that St George’s College’s Orville Smikle had saved, but the custodian was ruled to have stepped forward before the kick.

Curate, Solano Birch and Kamali Powell scored their spot kicks for Cornwall. Santino Barracks hit the crossbar with his kick.

Tahj Hylton and Curtel Lawes were successful for St George’s College. Cornwall College’s goalkeeper Peter Sinclair gained some measure of revenge on Campbell, saving his penalty kick. Jamone Shepherd sent his kick wide when he needed to score to keep his team in the game, while Rochaine Baker hit the post with his kick.

Dr Dean Weatherly, the Cornwall coach, praised the resilience of his players but said it was “sad” that the game ended in penalties.

“It’s a never-say-die attitude with this team,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“We really wanted the win and we put in a lot of work this week, it was a really good week for us and it was sad to see the game end in penalties, but the hard work paid off and we are happy with it.”

Neville “Bertis” Bell, the St George’s coach, said his team should have won the game.

“I thought we did well, I thought we played really well, I am a little disappointed that we did not win but congrats to Cornwall. They beat us from the [penalty] spot so we have to live with that.”

Despite Curate’s consistent brilliance it was goalkeeper Peter Sinclair who was named man of the match as he made some big saves to keep his team in the game. Aside from saving a kick during the shoot-out, he repelled a point-blank header that would have won the game for St George’s.