St. Catherine High was crowned the inaugural champions of the First Half Only 45 Football Extravaganza on Saturday night at the Montego Bay Sports Complex.
The Spanish Town-based school defeated Manchester High 3-0 in the final.
In a nerve-wracking sudden-death penalty shootout, St Catherine’s beat Cornwall College 7-6 in the semi-finals to advance.
Manchester comfortably advanced to the final with a 3-1 win over Rusea’s High in the semi-finals.
In the final, Dwight Gentles scored the goals for St. Catherine High in the eighth and 45th minutes. Telvin Gray scored the other goal for the winners in the 31st minute.
The football tournament ended a few minutes before midnight, but the energetic spectators showed no signs of fatigue and continued to cheer for the teams they wanted to support.
Anthony Patrick, head coach of St. Catherine High, was pleased that his players did their job.
“The competition is great. It’s nice to know we played well and won the title. I’m delighted, but this is more for the young players, not for me. I’ve won other titles. Before tonight, these young players hadn’t won anything. It’s a young team, so this will boost their confidence for the future. It’s important that we win every tournament and every training match.”
Manchester High head coach Donovan Duckie said the preseason was good for the players.
“We played against a high-class team that is very technical on the field. Their quick ball movement caused us problems but we had our moments and our chances but we didn’t take them and a few mistakes cost us the game. In the end we can take a lot of positives because sometimes the result is not the most important thing but we also look at the lessons. It’s preseason and the lessons are clear so we still have a lot to do before the (daCosta Cup) season starts,” Duckie said.
St. Catherine High goalkeeper Omarion Brown was named the tournament’s most valuable player.
The winning team received a check for $500,000. Six schools – St. Catherine High, Rusea’s High, William Knibb High, Cornwall College, Manchester High and Irwin High – took part in the spectacle.
