Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

The two teams that will contest the final of the Ben Francis Knockout schoolboy football competition will be decided today at 3p.m., when St James High square-off with Lacovia High at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay, and Dinthill Technical battle Old Harbour High at Spanish Town Prison Oval, in St Catherine.

Confidence high

Based on the performance of the teams in their quarter-final fixtures, which saw St James High brushing aside Godfrey Stewart 2-0, Lacovia tagging Rusea's 1-0, Dinthill blowing away Paul Bogle 5-1 and Old Harbour clipping Lennon 2-1, confidence should be high going into today's games.

In the game at Jarrett Park, a classic confrontation is anticipated between the unbeaten St James High and Lacovia, who appear to be a team that does not know how to lose.

Both teams were near flawless in the daCosta Cup preliminary round, where St James High easily won Zone A and Lacovia High easily won Zone E.

Looking ahead to today's game, Pastor Hugh Solomon, whose team defeated Marcus Garvey 2-1 in their first-round game before knocking out Godfrey Stewart, said his St James team, which features quality players in strikers Allan Ottey and Nicholi Barrett, is ready and raring to go.

"While we are not overconfident, we are extremely confident going into this game and we expect to be still unbeaten at the end of this game," said Pastor Solomon. "We are nonetheless expecting a keen contest from this Lacovia team."

Lacovia's coach, Errol White, who is enjoying his best season with the St Elizabeth team since he started in 1995, is also looking forward to the game with much relish and is not intimidated by the fact that the game is being played on St James High's home turf.

"We are not worrying about playing in Montego Bay as the players are mentally prepared to play anywhere," said White, who expects his top defender, Oral Grey, to play a keen role in the game. "We have a confident group with players who have been together through the ranks dating back to the Under-14 level."

CLASSIC BATTLE

In the game at St Catherine Prison Oval, another classic battle looms between Dinthill, who impressed in winning Zone J of the daCosta Cup preliminaries, and the Linval Dixon-coached Old Harbour, who made themselves one of the teams to beat by topping Zone I ahead of traditional big guns Glenmuir and Garvey Maceo.