Mona High School defeated Charlie Smith High 3-2 in an exciting encounter at Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex yesterday and reached their second-consecutive ISSA Walker Cup final.

Mona, which won their first lien in 2024, are one match away from successfully defending their title on Friday.

It was a five-goal thriller with Mona emerging victorious in a hard-fought game.

Mona took the lead with Franklyn Mitcham in the 38th minute, but Orlando Grant pulled Charlie Smith levelled a minute later.

But Mona restored their advantage courtesy of Savi-k Morton in the 42nd before Anthony Bryan equalised in the 45th for Charlie Smith as the half ended 2-2.

Four goals in the first half set the stage for an epic second half as defending seemed to not be a priority.

Joenaldo Payne gave Mona their third lead in the 59th minute, ramming home from close range and it turned out to be the winner.

Mona’s Technical Director Donovan Duckie said it was important for them to win as they were hard done by in the Manning Cup.

“We set it as a target that we wanted to win,” Duckie said. “Also wanted to win for Craig Butler (technical director), who is in the hospital. So we did our analysis of Charlie Smith. We understand how compact they were, how confident they are, especially as we know that they are in their home town (Trench Town).

“But in the first 10-15 minutes we kept getting caught in their transition. We wanted to play our natural game along the width. But we had to make some adjustments,” he added.

With Mona having won their first Manning Cup title in 2023, and their first Walker Cup in 2024, Duckie had high praises for the work done by Butler.

“There is no doubt about this man’s vision of identifying talent and then there is a system, a philosophy, and a culture that is at Mona,” Duckie said.