MANDEVILLE, Manchester – Defending champions Clarendon College and former winners Glenmuir High are the first qualifiers for the semi-finals of the ISSA/Wata daCosta Cup football competition after posting back-to-back wins in their quarter-final games on Saturday.

Kaheim Dixon scored a double to lead Clarendon College to a 4-0 trouncing of Manchester High in Mandeville while Glenmuir edged Christiana High 1-0 as both schools raced to six points in Group A and into the final four.

Dinthill Technical, meantime, took charge of Group B with a stunning 3-0 beating of Garvey Maceo who were losing for the first time all season, and also improved to six points, while BB Coke High all but ended Cornwall College’s ambitions with a hard-fought 2-1 win at Jarrett Park.

The top two teams in each group will qualify for the semi-finals and the first round of the ISSA President’s Cup KO with the other four teams joining the Ben Francis KO at the second round.

In addition to Dixon’s brace, Malachi Douglas and Deandre Gallimore also scored for Clarendon College, who had also beaten Christiana High 4-0 in their first game on Wednesday.

Orane Watson scored for Glenmuir High on his birthday as they returned to the semi-finals for the first time since the 2014 season and will square off with Clarendon College for group honours on Wednesday.

Tyrese Gowe scored a double for Dinthill Technical and Shemar Hutchinson got the other as the two-time champions took a firm grip on the group with their win at the Ewarton Sports Complex.

BB Coke High reignited their hopes of a first-ever semi-final berth after they rebounded from their 4-0 loss on Wednesday to edge Cornwall College with two early goals from Jahmaul Wright.

Wright opened the scoring in only the sixth minute with a laser-like free kick into the far left corner from just on the edge of the 18 yards box and doubled the advantage in the 13th minute when he deflected a corner into the far right corner.

Cornwall College, who were playing without three regular starters due to injury, stormed back in the second half and pulled a goal back in the 66th minute when second-half substitute Rackeem Grizzle headed a corner past goalkeeper Daniel Walters.

Kemar Ricketts, the BB Coke head coach, was hopeful of advancing in the daCosta Cup and described the win as a “wonderful way to rebound and we are at home with a solid chance against Dinthill next and we just need to plan, prepare and execute”.

The plan coming into Saturday’s game was “just to get three points, nothing less, anything less than three points would have put us in a difficult spot. We dug deep today, you know with a beautiful first half, the second half was a bit slow and all over the place but we dug deep and got the job done.”

Despite admitting to “looking up at Mt Everest”, Cornwall College’s Dr Dean Weatherly was not giving up hopes.

“We just have to have the ‘never-say-die’ attitude, two silly mistakes cost us the game but the boys really tried their best in the second half and got a goal but still fell short,” he said.