Former champions Cornwall College scored an emphatic 4-1 win over Rusea’s High in their winner-take-all ISSA daCosta Cup second-round Group 6 game played at Cornwall College on Wednesday and booked their place in the Round-of-16.

Carlondo Morris scored a hat-trick to lead Cornwall College as they rebounded from a loss to Manning’s School on Saturday to move to nine points and finished second in the group to the Westmoreland school.

First-year Head Coach Leacroft Lettman said the win came at the right time and was a result of teamwork from the players and the staff, as they knew they had to win or their season would come to an end.

Ben Francis Cup champions Glenmuir High topped the points table in Group 2 after a 2-0 win over early qualifiers Lacovia High and Manchester High got the point they needed to advance from Group 5 after playing out a 2-2 draw against Christiana High in Mandeville.

Meanwhile St Elizabeth Technical will continue their defence after they were one of four best third-place teams advancing including Garvey Maceo High, Dinthill Technical and Central High.

After two losses in the round, it was win or go home for Cornwall College and Lettman said the players stepped up at the right time.

“It’s just the right time because the boys have been going through some challenges and it was good to see them respond like this,” said Lettman.

Lettman described the performance as one of their best this season and said he hoped they will be able to use this win as motivation going into the next round.

“It is momentum upon momentum, and our backroom staff has stepped up really after the the second game to give us a punch,” he said, in addition the players were “getting to understand what we want and we saw the fruits of that today”.

After drawing 1-1 away to Brown’s Town on Monday, Rusea’s only needed a point to extend their season but were behind after just three minutes when Demarco Finnikin beat goalkeeper Giovanni Gardner from close range to give the home team the lead.

Rusea’s clawed their way back and Omarion Jemmison equalised with a brilliant free kick from the left side of the Cornwall College 18-yard box, into the far top corner of the goal in the 10th minute.

Morris then took over the game with one of his better displays this season, restoring Cornwall’s lead with a header from a corner in the 27th minute and then added his second in the 43rd minute.

He then put an exclamation mark on the game with a thunderbolt from outside the 18 yards box in the 89th minute that gave Gardener no chance of stopping.