By Paul A. Reid, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
FROME TECHNICAL booked an historic berth in the ISSA Pepsi/Sports Plus daCosta Cup final yesterday after beating Cornwall College 2-1 in sudden-death, extra time at Jarrett Park.
Shane Anderson's 101st minute goal avenged a similar loss in the 2000 semi-finals and allowed Frome to be the first team from Westmoreland to qualify for the final of the biggest schoolboy competition in the country.
HINES SCORES
Charles Hines had given Cornwall the lead after 30 minutes but dogged determination paid off as Jerome Campbell equalised in the 83rd to force extra time when Anderson scored the winning goal.
Frome's opponents will not be decided until at least Tuesday as bad light stopped the other semi-final at Brancourt with the scores locked at 2-2 after regulation and sudden death extra-time.
Clarendon College came back twice in the second half to equalise after Titchfield had taken the lead through Samora Barrett's free kick and Andre Thomas's penalty.
The game will be replayed on Tuesday at the same venue.
At Jarrett Park, After racing onto the field to hug his players following the goal that came in the last minute of the first period of sudden death extra-time, Frome's coach, Boysie Nicholson, was at a loss for words to describe his feelings.
He said however that they had realised their dream of making it to the finals and credited Cornwall for a good performance, which brought out the best from his team.
"It was a very good game, a high-pressure game from both teams. Both teams played well in attack and defence, I think we created some good chances where we should have finished the game in full time but so be it, and we have to give thanks to the Father that we are in the finals," Nicholson said.
He said that despite trailing at the half, he noticed that the Cornwall players were tiring and cramping up and so "we made some tactical changes by putting some speedy people in the midfield and tried to play the ball down the channel and get some crosses and it worked for us".
He acknowledged however that "Cornwall always looked threatening especially when they counter-attacked "but that was the only part I was worried about".
For his part, Cornwall's Dr. Dean Weatherly, who lost for the first time in five semi-finals, was philosophical: "It was a very good game but when it comes to extra time anything can happen as you only need one goal".
He said he thought his team did well considering it was without two of its best defensive players and its leading scorer.
Scoring so early, he added, might have affected the team's performance as he said the boys defended, especially in the second half, against the team's game plan.
Frome had the first chance at goal when Cornwall's goalkeeper, Tedroy Watson, was beaten twice in the first 20 minutes. He managed to just get his fingers to a cross from Anderson in the 20th minute to steer it away for a corner.
Cornwall took the lead when Hines got his head to a cross from Jordi Jacobs and beat Frome's goalkeeper, Triston Somerville, at the near post.
Errol Bryan had two good chances to pull his team level late in the half but kicked high from inside the 18 yards box in the 38th minute. Five minute later, he created some space just inside the box but his weak shot was parried for a corner.
Frome came out the stronger team in the second half and dominated, creating a series of corners but had to wait until seven minutes to go to draw level.
A minute after Alphonso Lewis raced almost the length of the Cornwall half before he was stopped by Watson on the edge of the box, Campbell popped up from a melee of players to ram home a free ball.
Cornwall looked like surviving the first half of the extra period but the speedy Anderson got by the Cornwall team down the left flank, cut in, then beat Watson with a low, hard shot into the far corner of the goal.
