STETHS open daCosta Cup title defence

St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) will kick off their ISSA daCosta Cup title defence when they host Maggotty High in a Group 1 second-round game in Santa Cruz. The defending champions are among 15 teams that will enter the contest at the start of the second round. Those 15 schools join the 21 teams which qualified from the first round in the new-look format. The 36 teams will be separated into six zones of six each, with the top two from each group and the four best third-placed teams qualifying for the round of 16. STETHS and Maggotty have been inactive since they both got knocked out in the Ben Francis Cup second round on September 26. The game at STETHS Sports Complex will be the only one between ranked teams in this round of games, and will be one of only two traditional first-round matchups. The other traditional firstround clash is to feature Cornwall College and St James High — teams with few secrets between them after drawn encounters twice last season. St James High, the 2008 champions, prevailed as winners of Zone A, edging ahead of Irwin High. They have allowed only two goals in their six games but will face a Cornwall College team that scored 24 goals in the first two games in the Ben Francis Cup. Cornwall have lost just once to St James since the 2014 season. Elsewhere, Munro College, who won all seven games in Zone D while scoring 41 goals, are away to Holmwood Technical, one of the three best third-placed teams. St Mary High, who have been perfect so far, will travel to Mile Gully High, who clinched top honours in Zone E on Friday. Clarendon College are to be without Justin Hayles for the game against Porus High after he was sent off in the second half of their 2-1 win over Manchester High in the Ben Francis Cup quarter-finals on Saturday. Porus are riding high after reaching the second round for the first time in over two decades. They are hoping for a big upset but will face their toughest test of the season. Manchester High will still be smarting from the Ben Francis Cup loss to Clarendon College and will hope to get back to winning ways when they host Edwin Allen High in Mandeville. Frome Technical, the Zone B winners, are to host Zone A runners-up Irwin in what is expected to be an interesting contest. Elsewere, Rusea’s High are to host Manning’s School in Lucea.   — Paul A Reid