CATHERINE HALL, St James — BB Coke created school history yesterday after they beat former holders Garvey Maceo High 4-2 on penalty kicks to win the ISSA/Ffresh Ben Francis Knockout title at the Montego Bay Sports Complex, their first ever football championship.

The Junction, St Elizabeth-based school led 2-0 for 55 minutes before Garvey Maceo stormed back to draw level at 2-2 late in the game to force penalties.

Garvey Maceo, the 2007 champions, had it to win in time added, but Barrington Blake skied a penalty kick to let BB Coke off the hook in a dramatic final 15 minutes of what was a competitive game between two offensive-minded teams.

Jason Dyer and Christopher Nelson gave BB Coke a deserved 2-0 lead, but Garvey Maceo never panicked and slowly clawed their way back into the contest with goals from Marvin Williams and Jermaine Muirhead late in the game to set up the late fireworks.

Kemar Ricketts, the BB Coke coach, was at a loss for words after the game.

“Today is a great day, I feel so good, I am elated… I am happy that we were able to pull this off [because] we worked hard for it and we deserved to win,” he said.

A disappointed Merron Gordon, the Garvey Maceo coach, said his team’s loss came as a result of what he deemed a lack of composure.

“We just did not keep our composure in front of goal, we created so many chances, but did not score, we even got a penalty late and kicked it away,” he lamented.

Dyer gave BB Coke the lead in the 33rd minute when he flicked on a free kick from about 28 yards out, heading it past goalkeeper Akil Benjamin into the top left hand corner of the goal for his 20th of the season in all competitions.

Garvey Maceo responded in the 38th minute when Barrington Blake hit a left footer from well outside the area, but Shavar Foster in the BB Coke goal was well-placed to get to it just before the ball went under the crossbar.

BB Coke doubled their lead two minutes into the second half after Benjamin collected a back pass from a defender and an indirect free kick was awarded from about 10 yards out.

The ball was played across the goal to the left hand side where Christopher Nelson fired it into the goal.

Dyer had another chance to add to his tally in the 50th minute when he got away inside the box, but this time Benjamin was of his line in a flash to block the effort.

Garvey eventually pulled a goal back in the 55th minute when Marvin Williams beat Foster from close range and then missed the far right post by inches in the 83rd minute, as they threw everything into attack and forced BB Coke back into their own area.

They finally got level in the 86th minute when Muirhead powered home form close range and should have taken the lead three minutes later when Gregory Cousins was taken down in the box, but Blake sent the penalty kick high over the crossbar.

In the shoot-out Shemore Forde, Raheim Brown, Kymani Case and Shamar Robinson all scored, while Muirhead and Tavan Richards were on target for Garvey Maceo as Foster saved one of the kicks.

— Paul Reid