Clarendon College 2018 DaCosta Cup Champions
Clarendon College completed a perfect season to capture the ISSA/Wata DaCosta Cup title, beating Cornwall College 2-1 in the final played at the Montego Bay Sports Complex in front of a nearly full house on Saturday.
Clarendon College won all 15 games in the competition this year, the third time the feat was being accomplished in the last ten years after Rusea's High in 2011 and Cornwall College in 2016 with a record 18-0 season to hand coach Lenworth Hyde his first daCosta Cup title as a coach.
National Under 20 players Nique Daley and Lamar Walker stepped up when it mattered most, in the second half as after playing since the 14th minute with ten men after goalkeeper Tafari Chambers was sent off for deliberately handling the ball, Clarendon added the eighth lien on the title.
It was the second time that Clarendon College were getting the better of Cornwall College in the final after their 1-0 win in the 1998 final and also made up for two losses in 2016 as well.
Daley gave them the lead in the 53rd minute, but Cornwall levelled the scores in the 64th minute when Sanjay Williams looped one past his own goalkeeper at his near left post.
Walker got the winner in the 86th minute when he got to a corner and nodded it past Peter Sinclair in the Cornwall goal as they conceded two goals in one game for the second time all season.
Clarendon appeared to have been dealt a killer blow in the 14th minute when goalkeeper Chambers was given a straight red card after he left his line in an attempt to stop a counter-attack led by Aiden Jokomba but was ruled to have handled the ball by referee Oshane Nation.
He was replaced by Alston Corke who had played in just two games all season but did not concede a goal while midfielder Roderick Granville was the player sacrificed.