Hamilton Parish reached only their second major final last night when they outscored holders Devonshire Cougars in a pulsating match last night at Goose Gosling Field.

The match was just as close as the scoreline suggests, with Cougars forced to come from behind on three occasions as Parish refused to be intimidated by last season’s triple crown winners, despite being without veteran goalkeeper Nigel Burgess.

“We have a saying that ‘hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard’ and we definitely came out here and put our hard work in today,” Kieshon Smith, a delighted Parish coach, said.

“To beat the defending champions, the triple crown champions, does a lot for our confidence moving forward into our first Friendship Trophy final.”

Parish broke the deadlock in the thirteenth minute when Kneiko Richardson followed up on an effort that hit the crossbar and scored from close range in a crowded area. However, like true champions, Cougars came charging back and were back on level terms with a brilliant free kick from Drewonde Bascome, who found the bottom corner with his effort from 25 yards that beat the diving Chae Clarke.

Parish regained the lead five minutes before the break when an error by goalkeeper Daniel Johnson resulted in Lorenzo Simmons blocking his attempted clearance from a back-pass and then rolling the ball into the open goal to give Parish a 2-1 lead.

The all-out attacking continued in the second half, with Cougars responding to coach Dennis Brown’s half-time talk by again drawing level in the 51st minute when Bascome found the net with another well-taken strike just minutes after being booked for a handball. Coddington laid off a pass to Bascome on the corner of the box and he smashed a first-time shot high into the near top corner.

Chances continued coming at both ends. To the delight of the vocal Parish fans, it came at the club end when Shayne Hollis’s shot from 25 yards bounced and then beat the diving Johnson, who looked to have it covered. Donovan Thompson gave Parish a two-goal cushion when he turned and curled a shot into the far bottom corner.

And even with just a few minutes left, there was still some drama as Ijahmon Mallory headed a cross into his own goal in the 84th minute to keep Cougars’ hopes alive as they continued to press forward. A break on the counter-attack by Parish resulted in Kijuan Franks receiving the red card for a second booking for fouling Shakeem Albuoy but Parish hung on to reach a first major final since the 2005 FA Cup against North Village, which they lost.

“We were poor from the beginning, in the second half we were poor ... poor all night,” Brown said. “It was not good enough.”