LOTS of times the hero in a football penalty shoot-out is the expert kicker with nerves of steel that is able to put away the spot kick to win a game or competition for his team.

However, Jeadine White, the Cavalier Football Club custodian, has a history of making the difference from the other side of the spot kick.

Known during his high school days at St Andrew Technical as a very good shot-stopper from 12 yards, White took that experience with him into the final of the Jamaica Premier League on Saturday.

He came up trumps in the penalty shoot-out to give Cavalier their first hold on the local top flight title in 40 years.

Two key penalty saves from White, one in sudden death, earned Cavalier the win over Waterhouse FC after the teams played out a 1-1 result after full and extra time.

It is a win White believes they deserve after the effort they put into preparing for the 2020-2021 season in spite of the restrictions in place due to the pandemic.

“We deserve it; we have been training for fourteen months. Even when they said everybody just stay inside, we find ways to train together as a team.

“I think this is the reward that we deserve.We fought hard, we staggered some days, and we still pull through in the end,” the 21-year-old goalkeeper said.

Waterhouse drew level very late in the game despite being a man down, and while disappointed with conceding the goal, White admitted that their opponents earned it.

“I am disappointed, but this is football. If a team is working for a goal, the football god is going to answer and help them.

“I would be unfair if I should say Waterhouse didn’t deserve the goal because we slept in the last part of the game and that gave them an edge over us with their ten players. But, I am grateful that in the end we still came out victorious,” he said.

White said it is the belief within the team that kept them going at the end of regulation time.

“Nothing much could have been said, but we just believed that ‘We still have the advantage. They are not better than us – we have proved this over a number of occasions, preseason coming up.’ It’s just one of those things that happen in a football game,” he explained.

White, who has been in that situation many times in his career, including in the second-leg semi-final when his penalty save against Tivoli Gardens piloted Cavalier into the final, says that he is always ready to get the job done for his team.

“I am one of the more experienced players in the team, given my age. I have to be the one to stand up whenever the team needs me. It’s very rare that I am called upon, so whenever I am called upon I always try to make sure that I am there in the end.”

Cavalier was the youngest team in the league by age and White believes that Coach Rudolph Speid has been vindicated for putting his trust in youngsters.

“The Bible says a child shall lead them and they say the youths are the future, and we have proven that definitely here today.

“We want to thank coach for believing in us – because he could have got older players – but he believes that us [players], 23 and under, would get the job done and we did it,” said the Cavalier ‘keeper.

White is a member of the Reggae Boyz squad that was named for the World Cup qualifier away to United States in Austin, Texas on Thursday.