By Paul A. Reid, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
DEFENDING CHAMPIONS Cornwall College and three-time champions Glenmuir High will meet at the Frome Sports Club this afternoon in one semi-final of the Ben Francis Knockout as both sides seek to qualify for a second final this season.
Today's match will be a dress rehearsal for the December 1 Pepsi/Sports Plus daCosta Cup final at Jarrett Park.
Either St. James High or St. Thomas Technical will qualify for their first schoolboy final after meeting in the other semi-final at Drax Hall today.
The Ben Francis final will be played on Saturday. Today's games are play to finish affairs and sudden-death extra time and penalty kicks - if needed - will be used to help decide the winners.
In previous meetings this season, St. James beat St. Thomas at the same venue while Cornwall and Glenmuir drew 2-2 at Elleston-Wakeland Youth Centre in Falmouth.
The match-up at Frome will attract most attention as the teams seek to get a psychological edge going into the daCosta Cup final. After meeting once this season, the game could come down to the coaches and the strategy they will employ for today's game.
After wins over Rusea's Comprehensive and St. James High, the Clarendon school will be seeking a hat-trick of wins over western Jamaica teams.
Both teams have lost just once this season, early in the zone stages.
Glenmuir lost their second game of the season in Zone I to Old Harbour on September 15 but have reeled off a 12-game unbeaten streak since. William Knibb Memorial upset Cornwall in a Zone A game on October 23 but the double champions are yet to taste defeat in their next eight games.
Cornwall will be without midfielder Kevon Grant who picked up his third yellow card in their 3-0 win over St. Thomas Technical on Saturday.
Cornwall's coach, Dr. Dean Weatherly, said while Grant's presence in the middle of the field would be missed, they had a back-up plan.
While he did not go into the plan, it should be no secret to anyone who has seen the Cornwall team play in the last month that attacking midfielder Dane Richards is the heart and soul of the team. He made two telling passes in the first half against St. Thomas Technical that led to goals and along with DeShawn Woolery and strikers Garrick Gordon and Orlando Coleman will be hard to contain.
It will be touch and go whether Glenmuir's central defender Oniel Allen will be fit for the game today. He limped off the field on Saturday in their win over St. James High.
Denzil Watson, who has scored six goals in the seven matches he has played this season, Ryan Maxwell, Kamian Ellington and Ezual Lewis will be expected to play big roles in their team's effort today.
St. James should have a leg up against St. Thomas after their come-from-behind win in the first round of the quarter-finals. Coach Gaulton Taylor however said his players took their daCosta Cup semi-final loss to Glenmuir quite hard and, coupled with numerous injuries, he would have to see how things were at match time.
If they can get their acts together in time for the game, St. James could qualify for their first final at this level as in Xavier Brown, Alton Shaw, Omar Campbell and Junior Malcolm, they have players with the quality to repeat their win.
St. Thomas failed to sparkle on Saturday and never managed to reproduce the form saw them score 47 goals. Twenty-six goal scorer Newton Sterling had two brilliant chances in the first half but was relegated to defensive duty for the second half.
Today he should rebound along with Michael Thomas, over-lapping defender Ainsley Barnes and Kevin Blackford as they hope to avenge their loss and score their first win against a western Jamaica school.
