WESTERN BUREAU:
THREE of the four semi-final places could be decided today as the quarterfinal round of the Pepsi Sports Plus daCosta Cup schoolboy football competition resumes after a nine-day break. The competition took a break to facilitate the playing of the CONCACAF Under 20 World Championships qualifiers in Kingston.
Group One leaders St. Thomas Technical will travel to mid island to face six-time champions Clarendon College at Woodside where a win could give them a spot in the last four.
Wins for joint Group Two leaders Frome Technical and Munro College over Garvey Maceo at Frome and Holmwood at Porus respectively, would also see them advancing as well.
In the other game, nine-time champions Cornwall College will travel to Ewarton to face two-time winners Dinthill Technical.
All games are set to start at 3:30 p.m.
The game at Porus will be a repeat of an Inter-Zone meeting where the Barry Watson-coached Holmwood had beaten Munro 3-1 and no doubt the Manchester school will be confident after coming off a surprise 2-1 loss to Frome in the first set of matches in the quarterfinal.
The prolific Landene Morgan, Roberto Williams and Miguel Coley will lead the Holmwood attack.
Munro are also one of the cinderella teams in the competition this year and will be gunning to make it to the semi-finals twice in three years. The 1-0 win over Garvey Maceo in the first set of matches would have strengthened the resolve of the Neil Harrison-coached team.
Frome Technical will have home field advantage over Garvey Maceo who must win to keep their slim hopes alive.
The return of midfielder and captain Fabian Blake has re-energised the Frome team and along with the seasoned Owen Cunningham, the tricky Ryan Golaub and Carlton Barrett, will give Frome as good a chance as any to advance to the semi-finals for the firs time in the school's history.
St. Thomas Technical are coming off a win over the tough Dinthill but will need more than their skills on the field to get past Clarendon College at Woodside.
Clarendon will be chomping on the bit after a close game against Cornwall College and could let out their frustrations on the St Thomas team.
Sean Fraser who represented Jamaica in the CONCACAF tournament that ended last night, could be a bit tired but captain Dane Chambers, Anthony Bennett, Aaron Jackson and Kevin Bryan will drive the Clarendon team.
Goalkeeper Allien Whittaker will complete his two-match suspension today but Ordeava Guy has proven to be a capable replacement and the St Thomas forwards will get no reprieve from his presence in the goal.
By Paul A. Reid
Staff Reporter
