George's College's Kamal Malcolm (centre) celebrates with teammates after scoring his side's first goal in their 3-2 extra-time victory over St Andrew Technical in the semi-finals of the ISSA/Pepsi/Digicel Manning Cup at the Harbour View Mini Stadium yesterday. - Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS Jamaica College (JC) and St George's will contest this year's final of the ISSA/Pepsi/ Digicel Manning Cup following exciting semi-final victories over Bridgeport and St Andrew Technical (STATHS) respectively at the Harbour View Mini Stadium yesterday.

St George's College recorded a hard-fought 3-2 extra-time win in the opening game against STATHS while JC defeated Bridgeport 2-0.

Kamal Malcolm (41st), Shamar Shelton (45th) and Deshawn Forbes (110th) were the scorers for St George's College while substitute Bjorn White (75th) and Jermaine Shirley (90th) were on target for STATHS.

Neville 'Bertis' Bell, coach of St George's College, said he was pleased with his team's efforts.

"This one is special because I don't think anyone one expected us to do this at the start of the season," said Bell.

He said he was very proud of his players because it is a young team which lost eight of the starting players from last season.

"We still have some more work to do. I think STATHS played well because we gave up a late goal and this has been plaguing us all season, but we were able to come back and win the game," he said.

The second match, which was a repeat of last year's final, saw JC dominate the early proceedings and being rewarded in the 24th minute when Adrian Christian headed home a corner from teammate Saeed Robinson from point-blank range past goalkeeper Robert Johnson.

Close equaliser

Bridgeport's Tyrone Thompson came close to giving his team the equaliser five minutes later, but his close-range shot was spectacularly saved by custodian Kirkland Hamilton, who dove full stretch to his left.

JC continued their dominance in the second half but missed a number of clear-cut chances.

However, in the 81st minute, Marc Robinson put the issue beyond doubt when he rose above two Bridgeport defenders to head home past Johnson.

Ian Forbes, manager of JC, said he was pleased with his team's performance.

"I think it was a hard-fought game and not necessarily the most attractive game but we did what we needed to do to get the job done," said Forbes. "We have been coming from behind for a number of games and so it was good to get an early goal today and we are satisfied with the result," he said.

Anthony Patrick, coach of Bridgeport, said: "I think we didn't come to play today and that was the major problem for us because none of our players look like they wanted to play and that was what cost us the game," he said.

"We were very flat, we left all the work on our backline and we conceded two very soft goals."