ST CATHERINE, Jamaica – A brave battling effort from 10-man St Jago High saw them overcome previously unbeaten Group B joint-leaders St Catherine High 2-1 in the parish derby in the ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup today.

Tied on 16 points with Jamaica College (JC) and having overcome their rivals 1-0 in the first match up this season, St Catherine High started as favourites in the derby.

The reigning Walker Cup champions had yet to concede this season and started the game in a bullish mood as they bossed possession without creating many goal scoring opportunities.

But St Jago High had come into the match on the back of a thumping 5-1 win over Holy Trinity and with the knowledge that anything other than maximum points would all but see them miss out on a chance of advancing to the second round of the competition.

They were offering very little up front until their new talisman Marcus Tudor put them ahead in the 22nd minute when he slotted home a rebound after a rocket of a shot from Jordon Taylor came back off the crossbar, to take his tally to five goals in three games.

Tudor was unlucky not to extend his team’s lead shortly after when he did well to evade two tackles before unleashing a shot that smacked against the crossbar and bounced just in front of the goal line.

Then in the 30th minute, St Jago were reduced to 10 players when captain Daniel Cowan was shown a straight red card by referee Oshane Nation for serious foul play.

Despite playing with one man short, St Jago kept up their attacking efforts and never appeared to be at a numerical disadvantage.

It seemed that they would go into the half time break with the lead until a rush of blood to the head of their goalkeeper Shamore Dawkins, saw him commit a foul inside the box and offer St Catherine a way back into the contest.

The experienced Nickyle Ellis made no mistake from 12 yards as he levelled the contest at 1-1 with virtually the last kick of the first half.

St Jago came out in the second half in search of the go-ahead goal, and it didn’t take them long to find it when centre half Lance Lawrence headed home from a corner kick to make it 2-1 in the 50th minute.

From there on it was the typical cut and thrust derby action as the two teams battled fiercely in front of their vociferous fans who cheered them all wildly.

At the back of the park, the Guyanese player Brandon Solomon was contributing as much to his team as much as his fellow country man and goal scorer Tudor, as his energetic performance in defence forced the other players at the back to stay on top of their game and keep their rivals at bay.

However, despite the best efforts of Solomon, St Catherine High should have grabbed a point late on, but Homareo Pollock hesitated with Dawkins at his mercy from just six yards out and then saw his shot saved, when he eventually pulled the trigger.

The final whistle from Nation brought massive celebrations from the Monk Street faithful as they moved up to 12 points and kept their hopes of advancing alive while St Catherine High remain on 16 points from seven matches played.

Things will not get easier for the green and gold clad team however, as they will next face JC, who pummelled Holy Trinity High 9-0 to advance to 19 points and remain unbeaten this season.

JC now have 42 goals and it will take an even greater effort to stop the Hope Road juggernaut when they come calling at the Spanish Town Prison Oval at 3:00pm on Friday.

In the other match in the group, Cedar Grove beat St Mary’s College 2-0 to move up to nine points while St Mary’s are yet to get off the mark. Holy Trinity has six points from seven games.