Edith hopes hang by thread

Edith Dalton James High School has never ventured beyond the first round of the ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup competition.

It is a curse the 40-year-old institution was threatening to break until they were beaten 5-2 by Wolmer's Boys' School yesterday at Heroes Circle.

The results means that Edith, on 13 points, are now faced with the mammoth task of catching Holy Trinity High School, who are second in the group on 18 points, from the remaining two fixtures in Group G.

With Trinity being one of the two opponents they have left to face, the curtains seem to be falling on Edith's 2018 Manning Cup campaign.

But Coach Omar Taffe is still clinging to the mathematical hope that still exists for his charges.

"We have to just go out and try to win the last two games against Waterford and Holy Trinity," Taffe said. "If it comes down to a dogfight with us and Holy Trinity in the last game, then we are ready for it, but we are focused on our next game, which is against Waterford."

Wolmer's are now on 22 points and have wrapped up qualification for the second round.

The game was never in doubt for the maroon and gold team and Coach Alex Thomas used the opportunity to experiment with different rotations.

"We just rotated the players so we can find the (right) combination of players," Thomas said.

In the 24th minute, Milton Harris broke the deadlock to put Wolmer's in front. But Edith pulled level through a strike from Brandon Duckette two minutes later. Harris made sure his side went into the break in front by scoring again in the 45th minute.

When Deshawn Bernard made it 3-1 just after the break, Wolmer's knew that their spot in the second round was almost secured. But Edith tried to put up as much resistance as possible and made the game 3-2 from the spot through Duckette. But the wave of attacks by Thomas' side in the last 15 minutes of the game was too much for Edith to handle and Kimani Gibbons scored twice to finish the game finished 5-2.

Yesterday's results:

Jonathan Grant 1-5 Charlie Smith

Eltham 2-0 Norman Manley

Wolmer's 5-2 Edith Dalton

Jose Marti 1-1 Waterford

Pembroke Hall 0-7 Holy Trinity

Today's fixtures:

Group A

Papine vs STATHS

St George's College vs Cedar Grove

Tarrant vs Cumberland

Group B

Dunoon vs Kingston College

Mona vs Calabar

Clan Carthy vs Ardenne

Group C

Meadowbrook vs Camperdown

Group D

Innswood vs Bridgeport

Greater Portmore vs Denham Town

St Jago vs Tivoli

Group F

Jamaica College vs Vauxhall

Kingston Technical vs Hydel

Campion vs Kingston High