MONTEGO BAY, St James – Former champions Cornwall College and Frome Technical will seek to salvage their football season when the first round of the ISSA Ben Francis Knockout competition gets underway today with four games.

Cornwall College, who have won the competition a record seven times, will face Edwin Allen High at Drax Hall starting at 3:00 pm after 2006 champions Frome Technical play Munro College in the first game of a double-header at the St Elizabeth Technical Sports Complex in Santa Cruz.

In the other two games, St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS), who won the event six consecutive times between 2010 and 2015, will face Vere Technical — the first-ever winners in 1982 — at STETHS, while Manchester High and Christiana High will meet at Kirkvine.

The winners will advance to the semi-finals set for next Tuesday, also at STETHS.

All four teams in the competition, which features the two western-based teams, will be hoping to rebound from losses in the quarter-finals of the daCosta Cup.

Cornwall College, who were beaten 2-1 by Manchester High and fell to third in their daCosta Cup quarter-final group, could find the going tough against an Edwin Allen High team that will be disappointed to have missed out on the ‘bigger prize’.

Edwin Allen have battled back from disappointments several times this season and will hope to win their first-ever senior football title in the school’s history.

The Cornwall College defence will have to pay special attention to Richard Henry and Akeem Mullings, two prolific scorers this season.

Cornwall College have improved as the season progressed and could spring a surprise with the likes of Devin Johnson, Dane Buckley and Braxton Richards.

Frome Technical are coming off a bruising 6-0 battering from STETHS who missed the daCosta Cup semi-finals by goal-difference and will face a Munro College team that has flattered to deceive all season but have survived to stay in contention.

Frome Technical scored one of the biggest margins of victory in the daCosta Cup, blowing aside St Thomas Technical 9-2 but lost to Garvey Maceo in another game.

Fabian Forbes had scored six of the nine goals and the Frome coaching staff will hope that he will turn up with his scoring boots today.