LeVaughn Flynn, Staff Reporter

St. Andrew Technical High goalkeeper Diego Haughton (left) stops a shot from Calabar's Cleyon Brown, while teammates Kadeen McKenzie and Dayne Mallet (right) look on. Calabar beat STATHS 2-1 in the quarter-final of the Walker Cup KO at Prison Oval yesterday. - ricardo makyn

In the midst of mourning, Calabar's Manning Cup team, for a moment, had a chance to shed the sadness of losing their coach and played the way he taught them.

Looking focused and purposeful on the pitch, despite the absence of the tall, grey-haired David Hunt on the sideline, Calabar defeated St. Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) 2-1 to advance to the semi-final of the Walker Cup at the Prison Oval.

The game was the second of a double-header and followed Excelsior's effortless 7-0 win over Camperdown. Like Saturday's 2-1 win over Edith Dalton James, the game had a lot of emotional weight attached to it following Hunt's sudden death on Friday morning and the players were aware of it.

"We tried our best to play for coach. 'We never say die', that was coach's motto." said team manager Homer Morgan.

"Coach always said, 'No matter what is happening we have to be focused', and as you can see they came out focused and the team was highly motivated."

Calabar's Cleyon Brown, Kabari Palmer and Keneil Hyde all gave STATHS goalie, Diego Haughton, stern tests early in the first half. Haughton responded impressively denying goal-bound shots time and again. Hyde and Brown were unstoppable in the second half, however, scoring in the 54th and 57th minutes respectively.

Hyde headed in a right-sided cross from Aljay Cole, while Brown picked up a loose ball on the edge of the box and snaked his way through to fire past Haughton.

Character

STATHS pulled one back thanks to Shevon Charlton from the penalty spot in the 77th minute after Michael Montgomery was fouled in the area. That goal spurred STATHS in their quest for an equaliser, but Calabar resisted disappointing their fans.

"STATHS came out in the second half and showed some character, but congrats to Calabar," said STATHS assistant coach Philip Williams.

Calabar will go on to face Bridgeport in tomorrow's semi-finals at Stadium East, while Excelsior will face Jamaica College.

Camperdown failed to really show up for their match against Excelsior, conceding two goals in the first five minutes. Leon Powell (1st and 5th) put them ahead early and Alanzo Adlam added another in the 16th minute.

Excelsior started the second half foolhardy much to the distress of coach Leebert Halliman. The turning point came in the 59th minute when Adlam set up Powell for his hat-trick. Two minutes later Adlam supplied a beautifully weighted pass to Severo Murphy for the fifth goal.

Adlam got his second goal in the 69th minute, while Ricardo Scott completed the rout in the 74th.

"We went ahead early in the game, which was good," said Halliman, "but somehow we lost focus.

"We have to play JC in less than 48 hours so we pulled back late in the game to reserve some energy."

Camperdown coach Andrew Williams said he had no explanation for his team's poor showing.

"I don't know what happened, the team just didn't turn up today," said Williams.

"So right now we just have to focus on the Manning Cup."