Howard Walker, Staff Reporter
Members of Calabar High School celebrate after opening the scoring against Kingston College during their ISSA/Malta Under-16 game at Campion College yesterday. Calabar won 2-0 and will meet St George's College in the final on Friday. - RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
DEFENDING CHAMPIONS Calabar High will meet St George's College in the ISSA/Malta Under-16 final after the teams posted 2-0 and 1-0 wins over Kingston College and Eltham High respectively at Campion College yesterday.
St George's College, courtesy of a Aaron Spence strike in the 61st minute, edged Eltham 1-0 in the first semi-final.
Meanwhile, two goals in three minutes by Kenneil Hyde in the fourth and Andre Braithwaite in the seventh minutes, saw Calabar shake off a spirited KC team.
Calabar, the reigning All-island Under-16 champions, will defend their title at Campion College at 3:00 p.m. on Friday against a St George's team bent on avenging their North Street neighbours' demise.
In the curtainraiser, St George's College dominated Eltham in every area and could have won by a wider margin as the scoreline didn't reflect the run of play.
While in the feature encounter, Calabar gained sweet revenge for their Under-14 team which lost 3-1 yesterday to KC.
Calabar got off to a fast start and were two up inside 10 minutes. Some slick passing by the green-and-black boys from Red Hills Road split open the KC defence allowing Moodie to fire a low left-footer past Shane Earlington in goal.
Before the dust had settled, Calabar doubled the lead as the tricky Kabari Palmer created space down the right flank and pass to Braithwaite whose first shot from 25 yards flew past a diving Earlington.
But it was KC who dominated the rest of the half and the game but to no avail.
The Purples had plenty of the ball and territorial dominance, but a clear-cut opening failed to materialise to really trouble Oneil Wilson, the All-Manning goalkeeper.
In the end, Calabar came away comfortable and deserved winners and confirmed their superiority over their arch rivals.
It was the second time Calabar were beating KC for the season. In an earlier quarter-final game, they came from behind to edge KC 2-1.
SCOREBOARD
St. George's 1 Eltham 0
Calabar 2 Kingston College 0.
