Papine High hold Camperdown to 1-1 draw after brawl
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Papine High secured their first point in the ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup competition in three years when they held Camperdown High to a 1-1 draw at the Alpha Institute on Friday.
Demario Knight gave Camperdown the lead in the 20th minute while Jahbarie Goldson rescued a point for Papine in the 85 th minute. However, the game was marred by an unfortunate brawl that saw five players being sent off for violent conduct by referee Malica Reid.
Camperdown High began the season as one of the favourites to emerge from Zone E but after dropping five points from their first two games, they are in early danger of not advancing at all from the group.
The Donovan Lofters- coached team had a bright start to the game and were rewarded for their early dominance when Knight, who was played in behind the Papine defence line by playmaker Junior Grizzelle, chipped the advancing Shemar Grant in the Papine goal to give his team a deserved lead, that they took into the half-time break.
It was more of the same early in the second half as Camperdown continued to dominate possession and create clear goal scoring opportunities, but they were particularly wasteful in front of goal.
Then almost out of nothing, the game was spoiled as a spectacle when the two teams broke out into a mass brawl from what appeared to be a pretty innocuous incident.
At the end of the fracas, three Camperdown players and two Papine players were sent off by Reid, leaving Camperdown to finish the game with eight players and Papine with nine.
For Camperdown, Daquan Brown, Marquies Bailey and Dante Thompson were given marching orders while it was Jahmel Johnson and Nashardo Tyrell who were sent for early showers.
There was very little evidence of a numerical advantage in favour of Papine after that as Camperdown continued to pour forward in search of an insurance goal.
However, their wastefulness in front of goal would come back to haunt them as just after Grizzelle missed his third one-on-one opportunity after kicking the ball directly unto Grant, Papine went down the other end and leveled the match when Goldson fired home from six yards out.
It was the second time in as many games that Camperdown was losing a player to a red card as their captain received a two-match ban for violent conduct following an incident in their opening match against Wolmer’s Boys on Tuesday.
For Papine however, the incident did little to dampen the joy of securing a point for the first time since 2018. Both teams are now on one point from two games so far this season.