Never yielding! - KC end 32 year Manning Cup drought with 3-2 win over StGC

Kingston College's (KC) 32 years wait for the prestigious ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup title came to an end at the National Stadium last night after coming from behind to beat arch rival, St George's ironically by a 3-2 scoreline in a dramatic final. The first half took saw a game played at times at a pedestrian pace, and quite rightly, Damani Harris was left unmarked in the area to walk the ball into the back of the net, to put St George's College ahead after 34 minutes. Second half substitute, Treyvon Reid equalised six minutes after the break. Chantomoi Taylor then restored St George's lead in the 72nd minute. But Michael Allen restored parity two minutes from full time before Nathan Thomas fired home a dramatic clincher which deflected in from 35 yards, in added time.

"This kind of feeling is inexplicable," said an emotional Ludlow Bernard, who came under immense pressure from the KC die hard during his three year reign. "I am not normally an emotional person, so when you see me jumping, you must know what it means," he said.

"I have a bunch of boys that really believe and they played for the coaching staff, and they play for the school. When we were down, and with the minutes ticking away, I looked at my clock and said six minutes, (captain) Casseam (Priestly), six minutes, and they said coach we are not going to let this one go and they dug deep.

"When we got the tying goal, probably they should have been a bit more comfortable and go to penalties. But they said coach we want to finish this now. They said no penalties and I got the (winning) goal from an unexpected source, who has never scored a goal. So I have to lift my hat to them," he commented.

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ABOUT FORTIS 79 GROUP

The Fortis 79 group is comprised of former students of the graduating class of Kingston College in 1979, in Jamaica, West Indies. The word "Fortis" is Latin and is the opening of our motto above. Loosely translated it means "The brave may fall but never yield". It's a motto that we have lived by for more than three decades.

The goal of Fortis 79 is to maintain that strong bond that was formed beginning in 1974 when most of us began our studies at KC. While having fun and keeping the connections strong, Fortis 79 is a subset of the larger "KC Old Boys Associations" (KCOBA) across the world that maintains continuous support for the future development of Kingston College.

This Group was formed to bring together all 1979 graduates of Kingston College. Hence our annual reunion held the 3rd week-end in June, venue to be announced January of each year. Also proceeds from reunions are used to support KC.