Many -time champions St George’s College will be among three teams seeking to extend their unbeaten run ahead of the second round as nine rescheduled games across three groups will be the order of today’s Inter-Secondary School Sports Association (ISSA)/ FLOW Manning Cup action.

All games are scheduled to begin at 3:30 pm.

Though all the excitement has been around the highly touted title favourites Kingston College and defending champions Jamaica College, STGC, the 2015 beaten finalists, have been quietly progressing through the first round.

The Group D favourites currently head the standings with 22 points and have hardly placed a foot wrong in eight games so far this season, registering seven victories, with their lone spoiler being a 1-1 stalemate against Vauxhall on Saturday last.

A mere 20 goals seem nothing impressive to what they are accustomed to in the 30 and 40 goals bracket at this point in a season, but Head Coach Neville “Bertis” Bell would mind very little. His young squad has already completed the first assignment, which was to advance to the next phase of competition.

However, today’s top-of-the-table contest against second-placed St Catherine (20 points) at Winchester Park will be another test of their mettle and a good indicator of how they will match up if seeded against a more formidable opponent in the next round.

The previous meeting between the two saw the North Street-based team coming away with a 1-0 win and another nail-biting encounter will be on the cards.

The Anthony Patrick-coached St Catherine team will be gunning for maximum points to provisionally slip their noses in front as STGC has a game against Denham Town to come.

In the other group fixtures, third-placed Kingston Technical (KT) (13 points) and fourth-placed Denham Town (nine points) will lock horns at Deanery Road, while Tarrant High (four points), who registered their first win of the season with a 3-0 beating of KT on last, will be hoping to end on a high when they entertain Vauxhall (seven points).

Group C leaders Hydel High (24 points) will be hunting win number nine from as many games when they renew their rivalry with second-placed Camperdown (24 points) in what should be another delightful contest at Alpha.

Both teams have already made safe a second-round spot, but Hydel, who currently holds a superior goal-difference along with a game in hand, will be cognisant that a repeat of their 5-2 win on last would put them in the running to end the first round as one of the top-seeded teams.

Third-placed Waterford (12 points) is currently out of contention, but three points away to the pointless St Mary’s College would boost their stats. The other group contest between fourth-placed Cumberland (nine points) and fifth-place Meadowbrook (six points) will also be one of academic interest.

Meanwhile, Holy Trinity, who has done well over previous seasons, could be the surprise of the competition this season. They currently head Group F on 25 points and victory against second-placed Clan Carthy (18 points) could see them entering the second round as the top -seeded team with 18 ranking points.

Last year’s third-place finish earned Holy Trinity three ranking points, which will be added to six ranking points for topping the group along with nine points for each of their nine first-round wins. All this providing that they better Clan Carthy at Bell Chung Oval today.

Should Holy Trinity better Clan Carthy, then third-placed St Jago (17 points) could now confirm their second-round place with victory away to fourth-placed Jose Marti Technical (seven points), and still have a game in hand.

The other group game will see Edith Dalton James (six points) and Ascot (one point) in a clash of the cellar dwellers.