Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS Munro College and Wolmer's will contest the final of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association/Jamaica Hockey Federation boys' Under-19 competition after recording semi-final victories yesterday at the Mona hockey field.

In the day's opening game, Munro defeated Papine 1-0 while Wolmer's book their spot after beating Jamaica College 3-2 on penalties after both teams were locked at 0-0 after full and extra time.

Munro took the lead in the first minute when Gerren Rowe ran on to a through pass from teammate Oshane Hasley and fired home a powerful 10-yard shot past goalkeeper Giovanni Green.

Ten minutes later, Hasley came close to scoring his team's second goal, but with Green at his mercy, his shot went wide.

Rowe thought he had scored his team's second on the stroke of halftime but his long-range effort was well stopped by Green.

Five minutes after the break, Charles Burton seemed certain to give Papine the equaliser but his clear shot on goal was spectacularly saved by Munro's custodian, Verely Reid, who dove at full stretch to his right.

A few minutes later, Munro's Demali Morgan's close-range effort was denied by the crossbar. Burton was set up by teammate Carl Campbell in the dying moments of the game but, after skipping by two Munro defenders and with an open goal to aim at, his shot went wide of the target.

Pleased

Fitzroy Rowe, coach of Munro, said he was pleased with his team's performance.

"We scored a goal in the first minute of the game and that was the difference between us and Papine," Rowe said. "Papine came out playing but I am really glad that we were able to hang on to that one-goal lead,"

"The important thing is that, we have another match on Friday (final) and the instruction was not to do more than we were supposed to today. I think that the guys did just that and I am happy for the victory," he said.

Andrea Hoo, coach of Papine, said: "I think that the immaturity of some of the players may have cost us the game. But whenever you are relying on some of your better players to really perform on a day like this and they don't, it really hurts."

Meanwhile, Papine and Excelsior will meet in today's Under-19 girls' final which starts at 4:30 p.m.