Excelsior's Neco Brett evades a challenge from Kingston College's Rashane Garcia during their second encounter in the ISSA/Pepsi/Digicel Manning Cup senior schoolboy football league at the Constant Spring playing field yesterday. Excelsior won 2-0. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Former champions St Andrew Technical High (STATHS) and Excelsior recorded identical 2-0 victories over Tivoli Gardens and Kingston College (KC), respectively, in the opening Group Two matches of the second round of the ISSA/Pepsi/Digicel urban area Manning Cup competition yesterday.

In the opening game at the Constant Spring Sports Complex, STATHS, led by second-half goals from Jermaine Reid (73rd) and Andrew Christie (85th), defeated Tivoli 2-0.

Neco Brett scored a double to guide Excelsior to an exciting 2-0 win over KC.

Keith Nichols, coach of the STATHS who last won the title in 1987, was pleased with his team's performance.

good victory

"I think that it was a good victory for us and we are glad that we were able to begin this round with three points," said Nichols.

"We are playing some good football at the moment and I am just hoping that we can bring this over into the Excelsior game on Tuesday," he added.

Meanwhile, the match between Excelsior and KC was played in adverse conditions that resulted from heavy rains which lashed sections of the island yesterday.

However, this did not weaken the Leebert Halliman-coached Excelsior's performance on the field, as they dominated the early exchanges and were rewarded in the 32nd minute when Brett outran two defenders to fire home past Marc Anthony Harvey.

Two minutes later, the speedy Brett came close to doubling his team's lead, but his point-blank effort went wide of the target.

Brett completed his brace in the 78th minute when he pounced on a right-sided cross from Lyden Reid to calmly slot home past Harvey at his near post.

"I think this is a very good victory for us under these conditions and I believe that our boys did a good job for us," said Halliman.

"It is going to be a very rough road ahead of us because our next game is against St Andrew Technical, who I think is the best team in our group," he added.

'didn't put away chances'

Wayne Fairclough, the coach of KC, said: "I think we played good enough to win but we didn't put away our chances. Excelsior made use of their chances and they scored two goals."

The competition continues this afternoon with two matches in Group One at the same venue: Calabar opposing Wolmer's at 1 p.m. and Walker Cup champions Jamaica College tackling Manning Cup champions St George's College at 3 p.m.