SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth – Defending champions St James High and Ben Francis Knock-Out winners Glenmuir High will lead six schools chasing places in the semi-finals of the ISSA/Pepsi/Digicel daCosta Cup schoolboy football competition as the quarter-finals ends this afternoon.

In addition to St James and Glenmuir, the other schools seeking a place in next Saturday’s single elimination semi-finals are St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS), Garvey Maceo High, Manchester High and last season’s beaten finalists, Spalding High.

Three schools will have an easier path to the finals as a point each for St James and Glenmuir from Group One, and Garvey Maceo from Group Two, will be enough to see them advance.

STETHS, Manchester and Spalding must win, however, to crash the party and extend their season by at least a week.

STETHS will be boosted by their big 6-0 win over Frome and will hope they can replicate their 2-1 pre-season win over Glenmuir when they meet at Santa Cruz.

Both coaches – Glenmuir’s Patrick ‘Jackie’ Walters and STETHS’ Andrew Edwards – will not put much stock in that meeting, however, as much would have changed between then and now.

STETHS’ hopes of winning will hinge on the form of top-scorer Deshorn Brown who netted three times against Frome on Wednesday, as well as Denmark Gillings.

Glenmuir’s team will be strengthened with the return of goalkeeper Andrew Blake, Davian Piper and Garnett Fearon – who all missed Wednesday’s game against St James.

St James will be at Jarrett Park against Frome Technical who are coming off the big loss against STETHS and are expected to beat the Westmoreland school who had held them 0-0 in the previous round at Frome Sports Grounds.

St James created several scoring chances against Glenmuir on Wednesday, but had to settle for a 0-0 draw on Wednesday. However, they could take out their frustration against the 2003 champions.

After back-to-back wins, Garvey Maceo should extend their fairytale run when they face Spalding at Kirkvine. A draw would be good enough for them to win the Group.

Garvey Maceo, who got a reprieve, replacing Old Harbour High who withdrew on the even of the start of the Inter-zone round, are the only school with a perfect win record in the quarter-finals and could still advance, even with a loss of less than seven goals.

With the competition’s leading scorer Kenroy Thomas, who has seven goals, Mikhail Howell and Andrew Vanzie leading the team, it is unlikely Spalding will be able to keep the potent Garvey Maceo team at bay.

Manchester should round out the semi-finalists with a win over Marcus Garvey, who have lost both games so far.

After losing to Garvey Maceo in their first game, Manchester rebounded with a 4-1 beating of Spalding on Wednesday to get back into contention.

The game was originally set for Drax Hall but was moved to Prison Oval on Thursday after Wednesday’s attacks on the busses transporting Garvey Maceo players and students after they beat Marcus Garvey, 3-1.

Today’s Schedule

St James vs Frome at 3:00 pm at Jarrett Park

STETHS vs Glenmuir at3:00 pm at STETHS

Marcus Garvey vs Manchester at 3:00 pm at Prison Oval

Spalding vs Garvey Maceo at 3:00 pm at Kirkvine.