Santa Cruz, ST ELIZABETH – Maggotty High School pulled off the upset of the round Wednesday as they edged group leaders BB Coke High School 1-0 in their DaCosta Cup Zone C encounter at the STETHS sports complex in Santa Cruz on Wednesday.

A 58

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minute goal by young striker Robinho Barrett was enough to secure three important points and bring Maggotty back into contention for qualifying spot with one game to go in the round.

BB Coke controlled the early tempo of the game with deft passing and movement of the ball, but failed to really trouble the Maggotty goalkeeper.

Playing on the counter attack, it was Maggotty that had the first telling effort on goal when Andre Ennever directed his effort wide of the target in the 21

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minute.

Maggotty again looked dangerous shortly after when Barrett had his effort from close range blocked by the BB Coke defense. 

Despite their crisp passing, BB Coke had difficulty breaking down Maggotty and their attack was dealt a big blow when leading scorer Danyea Whitely had to be substituted in minute 38 after picking up a knock. Striker partner Malik Chang headed over the bar from close range to close out the half.

After the interval, it was BB Coke who came out the brighter of the two but continued to lack the cutting edge in the final third.

Maggotty made their opponents pay in the 58

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minute after a slick counter attack down the left drew the defense wide and a well fed ball left Barrett with only the goalkeeper to beat. His composed effort low into the net opened the scoring to the delight of the Maggotty bench. They had a another chance to double their lead two minutes later when right sided midfielder Andre Ennever volleyed wide.

This sprung BB Coke into life but the Maggotty backline held firm with goalkeeper Ransford Green coming up trumps on several occasions in the final minutes with a number of vital interceptions.

The win moves Maggotty up to 6 points, level with Lacovia High who they will play on Saturday in a do or die encounter at the same venue. In the day’s earlier encounter, home team STETHS beat Lacovia High 2:1 to move up to 7 points and level with BB Coke. In the meantime, Munro College’s 4-1 victory over Mount St Joseph means they now take over leadership of the group on 9 points following 3 straight wins.

Maggotty coach Xavier Hendricks expressed delight at the win.

“We played a disciplined game today and paid close to attention to the players that BB Coke normally play through. We made it difficult for them to move the ball around in good positions. We kept a clean sheet today and hope to do same on Saturday versus Lacovia as well as scoring a goal or two ourselves,” Hendricks said.

Coach of BB Coke Kemar Ricketts was gracious in defeat.

 “I think our execution today wasn’t on point. Even though we lost our number 10 we still remained in the game until we made some more errors. Maggotty had a clear plan of sitting behind the ball and marking our players which we had prepared for but a lapse in concentration is what cost us,” he said.

– Steve Cole