St Catherine High will enter the round of 16 of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/Digicel Manning Cup on a high after they topped Zone G with a 1-0 win over many-time champions St George’s College at Winchester Park on Friday.

Romaine Walters got the solitary strike in the 28th minute to ensure his team ended the first round unbeaten on 22 points with 30 goals to their credit. Interestingly, it was Walters’ first goal of the season and a welcome one at this point of the campaign.

St George’s College, who were suffering their first loss of the season, ended second on 19 points and, as a result, will be grouped with reigning champions Mona High for the second round.

Holy Trinity (seven points), Norman Manley (four points), and Papine (three points) were the teams in Zone G.

Donovan Lofters, St Catherine’s assistant coach, was delighted with his team’s showing.

“It was a spirited performance; playing against St George’s College at home was always going to be difficult, but kudos to our keeper; he kept us in the game, and we are happy to have him. It was a game of moments; we got off a number of chances and we took one of ours, so we are grateful, and this is good for our confidence going forward,” Lofters said in a post-game interview.

St Catherine dominated proceedings for the first 20 minutes, as they were more enterprising and also more threatening in open play.

After close shaves and half-chances, they inevitably broke the deadlock when a corner kick was headed back across in the path of Walters, who released a fairly tame effort that eluded St George’s goalkeeper Jordan Knight, who made a lazy attempt at a save.

St George’s College eventually settled into their game and went close through Matthew Spence, who pulled the trigger from point blank range, but Omarion Brown, who was impressive in goal for St Catherine, stuck out the right hand to deny him.

Minutes later, Brown, diving full stretch to his left, again came up big to keep out Shaquan Clarke’s shot from a distance.

Though the second half failed to produce a goal, it wasn’t for a lack of trying from both teams, particularly St George’s College, who created numerous half chances, which they failed to make count due to faulty shooting and more decent glove work by Brown.

St Catherine had their best chance to add to their tally in the 88th, when substitute Terray Harvey somehow skied an effort from close range.

Neville ‘Bertis’ Bell believes they could have won the contest, but for Brown’s brilliance between the sticks.

“I thought we deserved something from the game, but we didn’t score, and we gave up a goal that we shouldn’t have given up, but Omarion Brown kept them in the game. Congratulations to them and congrats to him; he was amazing. I loved the game; I thought it was a good schoolboy game, and we wanted to win or at least get a point, but we are good because we are in the second round,” Bell noted.