BB Coke make history with Ben Francis title

Ben Francis Cup

BB Coke make history with Ben Francis title

By Paul-Andre Walker November 30, 2019

BB Coke High School are the ISSA Ben Francis Cup champions, lifting the trophy for the first time in their history courtesy of a 4-2 penalty-shootout win over Garvey Maceo at the Montego Bay Sports Complex in St James on Saturday.

The two sides played to an enthralling 2-2 draw in regular time after Jason Dyer (33^rd minute) and Christopher Nelson (47^th) notched goals for BB Coke only to be answered in kind by Marvin Williams (55^th) and captain Jermaine Muirhead (87^th).

BB Coke joined St Catherine High School as first-time winners of schoolboy football honours after the latter were 3-2 winners over Excelsior High School in the ISSA Walker Cup competition on Friday.

BB Coke’s players displayed nerves of steel to stay perfect through four penalty kicks, while Garvey Maceo’s nerves showed, missing their second and third spots.

In truth, BB Coke could have won the game quite early after Nelson’s 47^th-minute effort put daylight between themselves and Garvey Maceo, but the latter were not ready to quit just yet.

With less than a half to play, Garvey Maceo went on all-out attack and were rewarded when Williams scored with more than half an hour to go to get back into the game.

BB Coke tried to defend their one-goal lead and maybe that was a mistake as an onslaught from Garvey Maceo led to an 87^th-minute goal that could have changed the outcome of the final.

Tonight, influential Garvey Maceo player, Barrington Blake must be cursing his luck as he, more than anyone else, could have put his team’s collective hands on the trophy after he stepped up to take a 90^th-minute penalty, but it wasn’t to be.

His penalty miss on the stroke of full time was prophetic since the team from May Pen in Clarendon were destined to wind up on the losing side of a shootout a few minutes later.

Paul-Andre Walker

Paul-Andre is the Managing Editor at SportsMax.tv. He comes to the role with almost 20 years of experience as journalist. That experience includes all facets of media. He began as a sports Journalist in 2001, quickly moving into radio, where he was an editor before becoming a news editor and then an entertainment editor with one of the biggest media houses in the Caribbean.

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