The first three slots in the ISSA/Flow daCosta cup semis-finals will be filled this afternoon as nine schools will be chasing a top four spot from six games scheduled.
Defending champions Clarendon College, Rusea’s High and Dinthill Technical from Group S; all four teams in Group P- St James High, Manchester High, Paul Bogle High and Lacovia as well as Petersfield High and Lennon from Group Q are all in the race.
The fourth spot will be decided Thursday from Group R.
The winners of each of the four groups will advance to the semis-finals as well as the Ben Francis KO play-offs that are set to start next Wednesday.
Drama and fireworks are expected to be the order of the day as teams will be desperate for the opportunity to move on rather than go home.
Group S with four former champions and three semi-finalists from last year, has lived up to its ‘Group of death’ tag with Glenmuir High already out after two losses while defending champions Clarendon College are in yet another must win game if they are to continue their title defence.
Clarendon will face Rusea’s high at Juici Field while Dinthill will play Glenmuir High at Wembly Community Centre.
Rusea’s have shown they can perform playing away from western Jamaica after coming back twice last week to draw 3-3 with Dinthill at Dinthill and playing in front of what is expected to be a pro-Clarendon College crowd, might not scare the Aaron Lawrence coached team.
Clarendon College lost the last time they played at Juici Field, beaten by Dinthill but responded with a 2-0 victory in a must win game against Glenmuir last week.
Dinthill will go to Wembley full of confidence and will have all rights to be after scoring five goals in their last two games and going up against a team that have conceded five and are out of contention.
It could be asking a lot of the Glenmuir team to try and stop the Dinthill team that have won three in a row and appear to have regained their early season form that saw them steamroll teams and scoring at will.
All four teams in Group P are tied on three points with Manchester High who are seeking to avoid yet another season were they have promised much but failed to deliver, leading on goal difference of one.
Lacovia High and St James are on zero goal difference but the former has two goals, to St James’ one while Paul Bogle are minus one.
Manchester High will travel to Montego Bay where they will meet a St James High team that has scored just two goals in three games since the end of the Inter-zone round.
In the other game, dark horses Lacovia High and Paul Bogle, both seeing to rebound from losses last week, will meet at STETHS Sports Complex in Santa Cruz.
In Group Q Petersfield and Lennon High are coming off wins in the previous round and are tied on four points each but the Westmoreland school have a better goal difference and a draw would see them win the group on better goal difference over Lennon High.
While Petersfield will have ‘home’ advantage, playing in their home parish, the chances of Lennon High cannot be dismissed as the Merron Gordon coached team have proven this season they can compete.
Travis Grant is expected to lead the Lennon attack along with Lorenzo Lewin while Petersfield High will expect goals from Maliki Reid who has not scored in their last two outings, Donovan Brown and the speedy Akiel Brown.
