MONTEGO BAY, St James — The final eight places in the Inter-Zone round of the ISSA/Gatorade/Digicel daCosta Cup schoolboys’ football competition and the remaining six qualifiers for the Ben Francis Knockout competition will be decided this afternoon with the playing of 16 rescheduled games across seven of the 12 zones.

The regular season should have ended on Saturday, but those matches were affected by islandwide rain and the 16 rescheduled games were rescheduled for today, while the first round of the Ben Francis KO has been pushed back a day to Thursday.

So far 16 schools have either secured Ben Francis KO and/or Inter-Zone berths.

The qualifiers for Ben Francis so far are Rusea’s High, St Mary Technical, Grange Hill, defending champions St Elizabeth Technical, Manchester High and Old Harbour.

The qualifiers for the Inter-Zone round are Frome Technical, Marcus Garvey, Cedric Titus High, St Mary High, Petersfield, Munro College, Knox College, Clarendon College, Denbigh High, Glenmuir High and Tacius Golding.

Knox College and Tacius Golding are advancing out of zone play for the first time in their schools’ history.

Today’s action is expected to be tense and exciting as three zones — A, K and L — have yet to decide any qualifiers for either the Ben Francis or Inter-Zone round.

Twelve schools are chasing the eight available spots and 10 schools the spots from the three zones yet to see any teams advance.

With Zone A leaders St James High on 24 points and with a goal difference of plus-eight, all but certain to get a spot, it will be a battle royal between Cornwall College and Spot Valley both on 23 points and who drew 1-1 in their first meeting and have not lost in their last 13 games combined.

A win for either team today would see them clinch zone honours, ending St James High’s run of four straight but a draw would be enough to see Cornwall College, winners of their last six, advance.

Cornwall are tied on the same goal difference with St James High, but Spot Valley only have a plus-two so only a win will be good enough for the latter.

Spot Valley have never beaten Cornwall in their three seasons in the competition, but a 2-2 draw last year proved pivotal as they moved away from the 11-times champions to get second place and their first-ever place in the Inter-Zone round.

Repeat wins for Zone K leaders Port Antonio High and Buff Bay (both on 16 points) over Fair Prospect and Annotto Bay would see them advance.

Titchfield High are, however, two points behind and will play Happy Grove, and a win for them and a slip-up for any of the others, would see them advancing.

St Thomas Technical, who lead Zone L with 15 points and a plus-16 goal difference, have completed their fixtures and are all but safe, but a win for Paul Bogle High would see them clinch zone honours for the second straight year.

Seaforth High could also finish with 15 points, same as St Thomas Technical but must beat Morant Bay High by at least eight clear goals to edge St Thomas Technical. They had drawn 3-3 in the first round.

Cedric Titus, on 22 points, are expected to beat Brown’s Town in Zone C and take the Ben Francis KO ahead of Marcus Garvey, who are on 23 points and both are on plus-16 goal-difference.

Clarendon College on 29 points are assured of an Inter-Zone place from Zone H, but must beat Lennon High (28 points) today to secure the Ben Francis KO spot.

Even a loss can still see Lennon, last season’s beaten finalists, still advancing as long-time leaders Edwin Allen would have to beat Claude McKay by as many as 16 goals to edge them on goal-difference.

Glenmuir High, winners of six straigh gamest, should confirm Zone I honours with a win over Kemps Hill.