IRWIN, St James – Former champions St Elizabeth Technical High (STETHS) and Glenmuir High will start their quest for a place in the quarter-finals of the ISSA/Wata daCosta Cup football competition when the second round kicks off with three games today, all set to start at 3:00 pm.

STETHS will travel to face Irwin High, Glenmuir will also be on the road to face Morant Bay High at York Oval, while BB Coke High and Paul Bogle will meet at the STETHS Sports Complex in Santa Cruz.

Thirty-two teams qualified for the second round, 29 automatically for finishing in the top two in their zones, three from Zone C as well as three best third-placed teams and will play a home and away series with the winners on aggregate qualifying for the quarter-finals.

The teams were then ranked from number one to number 32, based on ranking points from a number of areas, how they finished last season, the zones they played in and the quality of their results this year.

In the second round, the number one ranked team, defending champions Clarendon College who have 22 ranking points, will play 32nd-ranked deCarteret College, the best third-placed team from Pool 1 who had six ranking points, while the second-ranked team Manchester High, who won all 10 games in Zone F and scored 18 ranking points, will face the 31st-ranked team Munro College, one of the two best third-placed team from Pool 2 who also had six ranking points.

Irwin High lost both games in the second round last season, the first time they advanced past the first round and will have their hands full against a STETHS team that was dominant, winning their zone and scoring 49 goals in the process.

Despite not as dominant in Zone A as they were last season, Irwin High are unbeaten in the first round the last two years and will hope to use home grounds to their benefit.

Leo Campbell, who scored in his last six games, will carry the scoring hopes for Irwin High while STETHS will depend on D’Andre Hibbert and Justin McPherson to lead their attack.

Glenmuir High had one loss in the first round, going down to Old Harbour High but other than that were steady but faces a Morant Bay High team that was the first to qualify for the second round.

Despite their early qualification, Morant Bay High finished second in their first-round group and comes into Friday’s game with a two-game losing skid.

At STETHS, BB Coke High will start slight favourites against Paul Bogle High, despite being ranked 11 places behind them at number 22.

BB Coke started the season well and were competitive in a tough group and struggled in the end but did enough to earn the automatic qualifying spot ahead of Munro College.

Paul Bogle High’s only loss came in their second game of the season and rallied to win their next four scoring 22 goals in the process, led by Demani Gordon.