Jamaica College captain Junior Flemming (right) turns the ball away from St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) player Carl Campbell, during the first leg of the Olivier Shield finals play-off at STETHS in Santa Cruz yesterday. JC won 3-0. - Steve Brown

Western Bureau:

Manning Cup champions Jamaica College placed one hand on the Olivier Shield, the symbol of all-island schoolboy football supremacy, with an intelligent display to defeat previously unbeaten St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) 3-0 in Santa Cruz yesterday.

Rafique Bryan netted a first-half brace and Ramone Howell sealed the result with a header on the stroke of full-time to give the boys from Old Hope Road a big lead heading into Saturday's return leg at the Stadium East field.

"We are feeling very confident at this stage, but no champagne yet. We still have a job to do and while the guys have worked hard, we cannot start celebrating yet. We have one more leg to go, which is very important, so we need to go there and get the job done," Coley said.

It was the first loss of a long season for STETHS, who did not look as menacing as in previous outings. Their trouble began when Bryan finished off an enterprising play by scoring in the 10th minute, and it was already hard to see a way back for the daCosta Cup champions.

As in previous matches, they tended to have the better of play in the second half, but the workload increased two-fold when Bryan completed a sweet move that included 10 passes. His second for JC was scored in the 45th minute.

STETHS coach Omar Wedderburn must have had some strong words with his players, who looked listless in the first half, and they responded well. First, Khesanio Hall showed flashes of his brilliant best, but his effort sailed over the crossbar.

Next Romain Thompson's toe-poke at the near post was watched by Courtney Donaldson in the JC goal as it crashed into the side netting. STETHS, however, playing on familiar turf, went goal hunting, leaving their backline exposed to the quick Jamaica College attackers.

JC broke down the left flank and STETHS goalkeeper Enrique Rochester stormed off his line to cut the angle, but the attacking player kept possession and lifted a pass inside the six-yard box for Howell to simply head into the open goal, capping off a comprehensive 3-0 win.

"We have some work to do. We have enough confidence to go to Kingston and turn this around," STETHS coach Omar Wedderburn said.

"I don't believe that the players were fatigued, if anything I think they were a little nervous, but we played better in the second half and we will try to recover on Saturday," he added.