‘This is Kingston College’ - KC claim 2026 Walker Cup with comeback win over Mona

Kingston College (KC) secured their 10th hold on the ISSA Walker Cup knockout title after completing a 2-1 comeback win over Mona High yesterday at Stadium East.

KC reclaimed the Walker Cup title which they last won in 2016, with head coach Jermaine Miller also delivering silverware in his first season as head coach.

Skylar McFarlane handed Mona an early lead with a goal in the 15th minute of the contest.

However, KC pulled level through Rasheed Payne in the 60th minute and captain Kamaul Patterson completed the comeback with the winning goal in the 75th.

After the game, Miller credited his team’s winning mentality for their victory after they recovered from a slow start.

“It’s really about the mentality,” Miller said. “I thought we came out in the first half a bit slow. We were playing but we just didn’t have that fighting spirit in us.”

Miller continued, “We went down one nil so, at half-time, I spoke to the players and said ‘This is Kingston College. The brave may fall but never yield’. So we came out and fought in the second half, kept playing our brand of football but really put our heart into it.”

Mona struck first in the contest and opened the scoring early with a beautiful team goal.

A series of passes saw them unlock KC’s defence with schoolboy standout Sean Leighton laying the ball off to McFarlane, who found the back of the net in the 16th minute for a 1-0 half-time lead.

KC were more purposeful in the second half and eventually struck gold at the hour mark.

A free kick from Payne thundered off the underside of the cross bar and landed beyond the goal line to open KC’s account.

Ten minutes later, KC had a chance to pull ahead when Deshawn Byfield stepped up to take a penalty, but his shot struck the post and was cleared by Mona’s defence.

However, the purple tide of North Street continued to crash against Mona’s defence and eventually got the go-ahead goal.

Patterson, with 15 minutes left in the game, lofted the ball over the head of goalkeeper Howard Robinson and it fell into the net.

Despite Mona’s attempts, they could not find the goal they needed to pull level and had to watch as KC celebrated their triumph at the full-time whistle.

Craig Butler, Mona’s technical director, sought to focus on the continued development of Mona’s football programme rather than their result on the day.

“It’s about development. It’s about hard work, it’s about creating a system and a football culture, and I think we’ve done just that at Mona,” Butler said.

“I think that the visions needs to be more on who we can get more kids opportunities, and how we can develop our players in world-class standards, and that’s what you’re seeing being played at Mona.”

gregory.bryce@gleanerjm.com