Photo: Alex Marshall scored the winner for St.Georges College in their 3-2 win over Glenmuir High in the quarter-finals of the ISSA/FLOW Super Cup as Sabina Park on Saturday.
Former DaCosta Cup champions Glenmuir High scored in the first minute of either half of their ISSA/FLOW Super Cup quarter-final against corporate area kingpins St. Georges College; yet found themselves on the wrong end of a 3-2 score line as their run in the 2015 edition of the Champions League of schoolboy football came to a screeching halt on Saturday.
Glenmuir stunned the Sabina Park crowd when they had the ball in the back of the net within second of the opening whistle as they caught the STGC defence cold. A shot from outside the area was parried by John Wilson and David Givans was quickest to react to the loose ball crossing to Onando Collier who slid the ball home from close range.
Unruffled by going behind so soon, the Light Blues poured forward in search of the equalizer and were level nine minutes later, but not by way of the usual suspects. Akim Shelton was given a rare start by his coach Neville Bell and rewarded the faith shown in him by slamming home from outside the box to make it 1-1.
Both teams like to play attacking football so it was never going to be a low scoring contest and STGC took total control after they drew level.
The STGC attacks down the flanks, especially the left side, were relentless, with skipper Shevon Stewart, the tricky Alex Marshall and the powerful Gregory Messam Jr. , putting the Glenmuir defence under extreme pressure.
In a three minute spell, Messam hit the crossbar with a free kick from 25 yards out. Marshall’s effort from inside the box was saved by Paul Beckford, after the striker slithered past two defenders; and a shot from Stewart was smothered by Beckford, after the forward had dismissed two defenders with consummate ease.
Glenmuir on their rare forays forward was led by skipper Kevon Lambert who did his best to push the STGC defenders back but was unable to create any clear cut goal scoring opportunities.
Cola Red as Glenmuir is affectionately called must have been hoping to get to the interval level but Stewart had other ideas.
After seeing two of his efforts on target well saved by Beckford after attacking down the left, Stewart switched to the right side and got the desired result when his powerful shot rocketed into the back of the net on the stroke of half time.
Despite being under pressure for most of the first half Glenmuir was back in the contest within seconds of the restart when they caught the late returning STGC cold yet again.
A quick attack down the right and a cross from Jevaun Ennis to Leroy Bryant ended with a simple side foot finish from Bryant to make it 2-2 with 44 minutes left to play in the game.
The second half proved to be a more even contest until STGC made a change bringing in Hakim Williams for Shelton in the 66th minute. Williams almost made an immediate impact when his cross from the right was perfect for Messam but the tall striker slipped at the point of impact and the chance was missed.
The pace and number of STGC attacks picked up but Glenmuir almost grabbed an unlikely lead when a Lambert free kick from 23 yards was spilled by Wilson, but the keeper recovered in time to avert the danger.
Messam missed probably the easiest chance of the game, when a miscued effort from Williams rolled into his path, but he got into a tangle trying to sort his feet out and the keeper recovered to make the save.
Messam’s blushes were spared by his strike partner Marshall who had been running the Glenmuir defenders ragged with his deft dribbling skills. When the defenders backed off thinking he was about to make another mazy dribble, Marshall relaxed and set himself before curling an exquisite left foot shot from the top of the box into the bottom right hand corner to win the game for his team and push them into the semi-finals for the firs time.
“Credit to Glenmuir, I thought they pushed us from minute one to minute ninety but we have the quality and we know that at any time, Alex Marshall or Shevon Stewart or Gregory Messam can step up for us which they did today,” said a thankful Marcel Gayle, assistant coach of St. Georges College. “It was an all round performance but we are grateful for it tonight.”
“Each game has its own opponent so we have to prepare accordingly so we just know that we have to go back to the drawing board and prepare for the next opponent,” Gayle said of the upcoming semi-final which will be against St. Jago High, the team they beat in the Walker Cup semi-final recently.
In the second game of the day, Wolmers defeated Clarendon College 1-0 to book a semi-final date with the defending champions Jamaica College who defeated Excelsior High school 2-0 at the National Stadium.
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