MONTEGO BAY, St James — Three former champions, including current holders Clarendon College, have been drawn in what appears to be the toughest of the four groups in the round-of-16 in the ISSA/Wata daCosta Cup football competition that is set to kick off on Saturday.

Cornwall College and St Elizabeth Technical will join Clarendon College and Mile Gully in Group 1 as the competition is expected to rev up as they get to the ‘business end’ of the season.

Sixteen schools — including four with perfect win records and seven former champions and first-time qualifiers Tacky High — qualified for the round-of-16 after negotiating their way through the second round that was completed on Wednesday.

The 32 qualifiers from the first round were paired up into 16 home-and-away ties with the winners on aggregate qualifying for the round-of-16 that will see the teams divided into four groups of four teams each.

The top two teams from each of the four groups will advance to the quarter-finals where they will be further separated into two groups of four teams each.

The other four teams that did not advance to the quarter-finals will contest the first round of the Ben Francis KO and the winners will be joined by the four schools that did not advance from the quarter-finals of the daCosta Cup.

Clarendon College are one of the four schools who are still to drop points and will start favourites from Group 1, Manchester High and Happy Grove, both with their perfect win records still intact will meet in Group 2 while Dinthill Technical, the fourth team with a perfect win record heads Group 3 that also includes giant killers Christiana High ad McGrath High.

On paper Group 4 could also provide some fireworks with the likes of high flying Garvey Maceo High and Glenmuir High, as well as Frome Technical, all in the hunt for places in the daCosta Cup quarter-finals.

Tacky High are getting this far into the competition for the first time, qualifying as the winners of Zone I then beating Cedric Titus High 4-2 in their return-leg second-round game on Wednesday after drawing the first leg 0-0.

The win came at a cost, however, as they finished the game with 10 players after picking up a red card, while Cedric Titus also got two players sent off.

Port Antonio High advanced on away goals over back-to-back semi-finalists Mannings School after they finished tied at 2-2 after Mannings won Wednesday’s game 2-1 after losing the first leg 1-0 on Saturday.

William Knibb Memorial are back into the round-of-16 for the third-straight season, but had to dodge bullets after first qualifying third in their group.

William Knibb eliminated last season’s beaten finalists Central High who had also climbed out of a massive hole after losing their first two games by a 10-1 aggregate then picking up 16 points from their next six games with five wins and a draw.

Dinthill Technical and McGrath High will renew acquaintances after playing against each other twice in Zone J in the first round with Dinthill winning both games 3-1 and 2-1 respectively.