DEFENDING champions Glenmuir High and former champions Cornwall College were both winners on Saturday as the 2013 ISSA/LIME daCosta Cup schoolboy football season got underway with a triple header at the Montego Bay Sports Complex.

They both scored 2-0 wins, Glenmuir beating Denbigh in Zone M and Cornwall blanking Maldon High in Zone A to get their title aspirations underway.

In the opening game, played in rain, St George’s College got their Manning Cup defence underway by playing to a 2-2 draw against Camperdown High with two goals from national junior player Cardell Benbow.

In the daCosta Cup, 80 teams will be chasing the two spots in the finals set for late November and, based on the pre-season predictions, the title race is wide open.

Meanwhile, five more games will be played this afternoon in two zones; newcomers Steer Town High will play away to Ocho Rios High in one of three games in Zone I, while York Castle hosts Marcus Garvey, and Cedric Titus are home to Brown’s Town.

In Zone N, Fogo Road and Central high will meet while Old Harbour high and Kemps Hill will square off.

On Saturday, despite dominating their games, both Cornwall College and Glenmuir were made to work hard by opponents that made up for talent with hard work and rugged defending.

Akeem McCarthy recorded the season’s first double when he scored twice in the second half for Cornwall College, who missed a handful of chances in the third game of the day, after Glenmuir scored twice in the first half in the Zone M game.

Peter-Lee Vassell missed a handful of scoring chances for Cornwall that saw goalkeeper Leonardo Friginette make one good save the entire day as Maldon failed to put up a consistent attack.

McCarthy scored in the 52nd and in time added on at the end of the second half, both almost from the same set play, balls coming in from the left side that the Maldon defence failed to get the ball away.

Glenmuir scored their first win in the post-Jackie Walters era when Ricardo Dennis scored in the 5th minute and Romaine Fagan in the 34th minute in what looked like a runaway win.

Denbigh High, however, came back strong in the second half and created their own scoring chances, but fell just short.

— Paul Reid