SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Confidence is high going into today’s semi-finals of the ISSA/Digicel daCosta Cup competition at the St Elizabeth Technical High Sports Complex, with places at the December 3 final at stake.

Clarendon College, who won nine titles between 1977 and 2019, face last season’s finalists Manning’s School in the first game set to kick off at 2:00 pm while Manchester High, who are in their second semi-finals and first since 2015, take on first-time semi-finalists Central High in the second game set to start at 4:30 pm.

With the games being play-to-finish affairs, penalty shoot-outs will be used to decide the winners if the scores are tied after 90 minutes.

Of the four schools left in the competition, three are coming off losses in the ISSA Champions Cup Knockout quarter-finals on Saturday with Clarendon College, the only winners from the rural area competition.

At least one coach, Manning’s School’s Everton Tomlinson, was critical of the format that sees the teams switching between the two competitions, and described the ISSA Champions Cup as “a distraction”.

Today, however, he said his team “must be focused and turned on for 90 minutes — not 20 or 40 minutes as we saw in the last game”, as Manning’s were beaten 4-0 by Jamaica College in the Champions Cup on Saturday.

Manning’s will go into the game as underdogs against Clarendon College, the only unbeaten team left in the competition and who seem to be getting better with each game.

Saturday’s loss, Tomlinson told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday, “shows us that we have more work to do”, before adding that the loss could affect the players’ self confidence.

Tomlinson said the goal this season is to get back to the final after their big loss against Garvey Maceo last season. “The dream, the desire was to get back to the final, and we know we can do that. This team has quality, and as long as we play the way we know how to play, we should win,” he said.

Lenworth Hyde, the Clarendon College coach, said while his charges were “upbeat, confident, ready” for the game, they were not taking any thing for granted.

“Manning’s is a very good team and they are playing well, and we must stay disciplined and the best team will win,” Hyde opined.

Clarendon College have been in cruise control since the end of the first round and have conceded just two goals in eight games across the second round, round of 16, and quarter-finals.

Clarendon College beat St Mary Technical 12-1 over two games in the second round; won their three round-of-16 games by a 10-1 aggregate, and by 7-0 in their three quarter-final games.

Marques Reid, Kaheim Dixon and Malachi Douglas have led the Clarendon College scoring of late, but they have had goals from at least six players this season.

Jhamaleek Porter started the season going great guns for Manning’s but seemed to have cooled off in the last few games, but Shamar Hamilton and Javin Williams, along with Rushawn Graham, have taken up the slack.

One of the two teams in the second game will qualify for the final for the first time, and the stakes will be high as they meet for the second time this season after drawing 1-1 in the round-of-16 game.

Manchester High are back in the last four for the first time since 2015 and Head Coach Johnoi Chambers said while it is “a big achievement, there is not room for excitement yet”, going on to say their loss to St Andrew Technical in the Champions Cup “brought us back to earth”.

Chambers was quick to point out that their previous loss to Belair High in the first round had a cathartic effect in that “it turned our season around”.

Saturday’s loss, he said, was not all negatives. “We learned a lot about ourselves, and in the semi-finals we intend to impose ourselves.”

In their first meeting with Central High he said they had played without two of the better players, including top scorer Yarek Carnegie, but informed that both will be available today.

Jermaine Douglas, the Central High coach, says his team has “nothing to lose” and that if anything, Saturday’s loss to Kingston College in the Champions Cup proved “we can compete with the best”.

The best the Clarendon-based school had done prior to this season was a quarter-final spot in 2012, and Douglas said their chances of winning today “are as good and anyone else’s”.

After seeing Manchester High face to face not so long ago, he said they know what they have to do to get the win and are not overawed by the situation. “We have had our backs against the wall a few times this season and have escaped so we know what we need to do.”

Wednesday’s Games

2:00 pm: Clarendon College vs Manning’s School @ STETHS

4:30 pm: Manchester High vs Central High @ STETHS