Five underdog teams led by McGrath High created upsets on Wednesday’s first leg second-round games in the ISSA/Wata DaCosta Cup football competition.
McGrath High edged former champions Rusea’s High 1-0 at the Collin Miller Sports Complex in Lucea, while Happy Grove ended Annotto Bay’s season-long perfect win record as Lennon High, Cedric Titus and Ocho Rios also scored wins going into Saturday’s return legs.
McGrath High who were qualifying for the second round for the first time in 14 years, grabbed an early lead, as Javaun Reid shocked the Rusea’s faithful, scoring in the first minute of the game.
Happy Grove who was ranked 28th of the 32 teams, handed number five ranked Annotto Bay High their first loss of the season, winning 2-1 at Carder Park with first-half goals from Shavir Hamilton and Tevionne Miller.
Lennon High ranked 21st, got by the number 12th ranked BB Coke 2-1 with goals from a defender and Kyla Williams. Shannon Blake scored a double for number 25th ranked Cedric Titus as they blanked number 8 ranked Seaforth High 2-0 at Elleston Wakeland.
Shamar Reddie’s goal was enough for 24th ranked Ocho Rios High to hand number 9 ranked Mannings School their first loss of the season at Drax Hall.
Two ranked teams STETHS and Garvey Maceo stepped up with wins over Brimmervale High and Spalding respectively.
Kristoff Murray scored twice for STETHS in their 5-1 victory while Mushtaq Christopher, Michael German and a Brimmervale player got the other goals while Garvey Maceo edged Spalding 2-1 and the game between Denbigh High and Port Antonio ended in a 0-0 draw.
