The more than three decades drought was finally broken on Friday night as Kingston College won the ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup with a dramatic finish coming from a goal down to score two late goals and beat North Street neighbours St George’s College 3-2 in an epic finale.
Kingston College lifted their 15th title and first since 1986 as St George’s College ended the season empty-handed and extended their Manning Cup drought to seven years.
Both teams missed glaring chances and on at least two occasions misses led directly to goals at the other end, and Damani Harris will have sleepless nights as he had the opportunities to kill off the game in the 85th minute, but the St George’s College player missed a wide-open goal from point-blank range.
After a series of misses from Kingston College and a glaring open goal from Ari Rogers, St George’s College took the lead in the 34th minute when he finished off a swift counter with a left-foot shot into the far left corner of the goal for his 15th goal of the season.
Kingston College made a double substitution at the start of the second half, and one of the new players Trayvone Reid pulled Kingston College level in the 51st minute when his shot went under the legs of the St George’s College goalkeeper.
St George’s retook the lead in the 71st minute from top scorer turned super-substitute Chantomoi Taylor.
Harris’s glaring miss that would have killed off the game in the 85th minute turned into a nightmare as another KC substitute Michael Allen found the late equaliser in the 86th minute. A deflected shot proved to be the dagger in time added on when a shot from long range from Nathan Thomas, deflected off Taylor and flew into St. George’s goal.
