TITLE favourites Jamaica College (JC) face a tough Excelsior High at Stadium East at 4:15 pm, in one of four quarter-final matches as the ISSA Wata Manning Cup heats up with some intriguing games.

In the curtain-raiser at Stadium East, Charlie Smith High and Hydel High clash at 2:00 pm.

Elsewhere, Calabar High tackle Vauxhall High at Winchester Park at 3:00 pm.

Eltham High are set to welcome St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) to the Spanish Town Prison Oval for a 3:00 pm encounter as all the teams hunt those crucial first three points.

With the demise of the two most recent champions, Kingston College (2024) and Mona High (2023), perennial contenders Jamaica College will start favourites to win it all — and rightly so as they last won in 2022.

JC, guided by Davion Ferguson, have arguably the most balanced team and are the only unbeaten side left in the competition. They comprise the likes of the experienced Jabari Howell, the wily Dwayne Burger, Jamone Lyle and Keshaun-Lee Chin and Donald Stewart Jr — son of the former national central defender — to shore up the backline.

JC are very comfortable on the ball and are a solid, well-drilled bunch. But they will encounter, probably for the first time this season, an equally balanced team that has enough quality to really hurt them.

The Keon Broderick-coached boys from Mountain View Avenue are hungry to end their 20-year drought, having last won the marquee urban area crown in 2004.

Leading the line for Excelsior will be Kimarly Scott, who scored twice against Tivoli Gardens on Saturday, along with Kivann Salmon, Shamarie Chambers, Terrence Williams and Nicwayne Patrick.

The stage is set for an epic encounter between two teams that are fancied to go all the way from Zone A.

In the other Zone A game, Charlie Smith and Hydel High are dark horses so this should be another intriguing encounter. Charlie Smith have improved since a 0-3 defeat to Kingston College, as they went on to progress from the second round with wins over St Catherine High and St George’s College.

Hydel can boast about being the only team to beat KC this season, and will be confident of beating Charlie Smith. But football doesn’t work like that, and it’s down to who wants it more on the day — especially at the schoolboy level.

In Zone B Calabar, with the outstanding Jaheim Rankine, could prove too hot for Vauxhall High, playing at the quarter-finals stage for the first time in their history.

Young coach Kyle Butler has done a marvellous job with Vauxhall, and their Cinderella run could continue as they have some talented footballers in their ranks, evidenced by their 3-1 demolition of St George’s College.

Having lost a number of finals in recent times, STATHS are on the hunt to get it right, and this could be the year for Philip Williams and his boys from Bumper Hall.

They have been flying below the radar, quietly doing their thing. However, they face a formidable opponent in Eltham High who topped a group involving both JC and Mona and must be respected. It should be a close encounter which can go any way.