St Elizabeth Technical High (STETHS) and Clarendon College, combined for ten titles, will meet in the December 7th final of the ISSA Ben Francis Cup after winning their respective semi-finals played at Glenmuir High School in May Pen, Clarendon.
STETHS came from behind to beat last season’s beaten finalists, Frome Technical, 3-2. Clarendon College edged a wasteful Denbigh High 1-0 to set up the final between two of Jamaica’s most prominent names in rural schoolboys football.
Kaieem Lewis scored a late double for STETHS, playing in the KO competition for the fifth straight season and seeking a record-tying seventh title.
Frome lost a third game while leading late in the season. After being unbeaten over their first 16 games, they won just once in the last six games, spanning the Ben Francis and daCosta Cup competitions.
It was also the second time they had given up a lead in just over two weeks and lost to STETHS, who had beaten them 3-1 in the daCosta Cup quarter-finals.
Frome Technical got off to a fast start and led after just three minutes when Antwayne Cooper beat STETHS goalkeeper Johnoi Steadman to a ball lofted into the 18-yard box and headed it into the unprotected goal.
STETHS drew level in the 17th minute when Justin McPherson’s shot from just outside the six-yard box took a deflection off Frome Technical’s defender Uriel Lemphard and beat goalkeeper Oral Davis.
Stevaughn Spence produced a stunning free-kick to restore Frome Technical’s lead, beating Steadman with sheer power from just on the left side of the 18-yard box, brushing by the goalkeeper’s glove on its way into the roof of the goal.
Lewis took over late in the game, first finishing off a brilliant solo effort from Deandre Barnett. He received a cross from the left, and all he had to do was redirect it into the goal, tying up the scores at 2-2 in the 64th minute.
He then gave STETHS the lead for the first time in the game, scoring the winner in the 73rd minute after shaking off two defenders at the top of the 18-yard box. He dribbled past two other defenders before beating Davis from close range.
A 54th-minute penalty conversion from Justin Hayles decided the second game, which failed to live up to expectations after the teams had shared 2-1 wins earlier in the season.