SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Defending champions St Elizabeth Technical High (STETHS) and Rusea’s High will lead today’s charge for places in the semi-finals of the ISSA/Pepsi/Digicel daCosta Cup football competition as the quarter-finals come to an end with four games.

STETHS and Rusea’s lead their respective groups with four points and need only a draw to advance to Saturday’s semi-final.

All eight teams are still in with mathematical chances of advancing, however, but Marcus Garvey Technical and Old Harbour, both on one point, must beat St James High and Rusea’s, respectively, and hope for favourable results in the other games to book their spots.

After coming from behind to earn a 2-2 draw a week ago against St James High, STETHS then beat Marcus Garvey to wrest back the advantage and will hope for a repeat of last year’s result when they beat Glenmuir 2-0 in Santa Cruz.

Glenmuir were unfortunate on Wednesday, as they led St James High until time added on when a defender’s goal left them with just a point to show from a dominant performance.

Glenmuir on two points from two games will have no choice but to go on the offensive from the start of the game and will hope Ramon Whittaker is fully recovered from a hamstring injury that forced him off the field on Wednesday after 65 minutes.

Whittaker and Paul Wilson have combined for seven goals since the start of the Inter-zone round, but will go up against arguably the best goalkeeper left in the competition in STETHS’ Gregory McKogg.

In the other Group One game, St James High will be seeking their first win of the round when they go up against Marcus Garvey with whom they played out a 2-2 stale mate two weeks ago at the same venue.

The absence of the injured Cion Peterkin from the St James midfield is a big blow, but they should welcome back Jason Malcolm, who missed Wednesday’s game.

Malcolm will bolster the attack that has been led by striker Allan Ottey and Ricardo Morris who have combined to score nine goals, all but four of the team’s total since the start of the Inter-zone.

In Group Two red-hot Rusea’s who must be considered odds on favourites to win the title based on their performance so far will take on a desperate Old Harbour High, who need to win by a two-goal margin to have any hopes.

Rusea’s will come into the game with an awesome defensive record of conceding just one goal in the entire season so far, a span of 13 games.

The only breach of their defence came in a first-round Zone B game against Herbert Morrison, who scored early. Rusea’s have not conceded in over 975 minutes since then.

At the other end, Brian Brown leads the competition with seven goals and after being held without a goal in the last two games, could add to that tally today.

The game of the day could come at Jamalco where a point could be good enough for Garvey Maceo, but they will be facing a Lennon team that had impressed in the Inter-zone round before sputtering to just one goal and two points in this round.

Garvey Maceo were beaten by Rusea’s on Wednesday, but with so much at stake it is expected that two evenly matched teams will produce good football and goals.

Lennon’s Odane Brown, Ewan Grandison and Justin Johnson are a formidable strike force, while Garvey Maceo are expected to counter with Kenroy Thomas, Hakeem Gabbidon and Glenford Johnson.