CLARENDON PARK, Clarendon — Four-time defending champions St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) and three-time winners Clarendon College will meet in what is expected to be a titanic clash in the semi-finals of the ISSA/LIME Ben Francis Knockout football competition at the Juici Field today at 2:45 pm.

In another game set for Jamalco, underdogs Dinthill Technical and Glenmuir High will meet in the other semi-final with today’s winners meeting in the final on Saturday set for a venue still to be decided.

Dinthill Technical, two-time daCosta Cup champions, are the only team left in the competition not to have won the Ben Francis KO with the other three combining for 13 with Glenmuir and STETHS together winning the last five.

All four teams who qualified for today’s games after topping their quarter-final groups, are also still in the running for the schoolboy triple — the Ben Francis KO, daCosta Cup and Olivier Shield.

After playing for just over nine weeks, the rural area senior schoolboy competition has reached the crucial stages where every game could lead the teams closer to a title.

While the coaches all conceded that the daCosta Cup was the main target, they also said that the Ben Francis title was still important and they would be going all out to try and win it.

STETHS are the only unbeaten team left in the rural area competition, drawing only twice while winning the other 14 games played.

Clarendon lost once, a meaningless first-round game to Lennon High; Glenmuir were beaten by St James High in the Inter-zone round, while Dinthill Technical lost twice in the first round and only advanced as a runner-up.

STETHS’ coach Omar Wedderburn said his team was prepared for this time of the season and despite less than stellar performances in their last two games, they were ready for the prime-time section of the season.

STETHS booked their spot in the top four after a hard-fought 1-0 win over Petersfield High in a must-win game last week, four days after being knocked out of the LIME Super Cup by Jamaica College, their only blemish so far.

“All we needed was to win over Petersfield and we did that; the scoreline does not matter,” Wedderburn said. “We know what is required at this time and we are accustomed to teams coming at us, just like Clarendon will be coming hard, but we have the objective in mind to win titles.”

The man who led STETHS to the rural area double last year, said: “As a coach we always want to win and Tuesday’s approach will not be any different.”

Walters, one of the most successful schoolboy coaches in the island and one of the few to win both daCosta and Manning Cups, said his team was ready.

“Our chances of winning are good and we are up to the task,” he said.

Dinthill Technical have embraced the ‘underdogs’ tag and according to Everton Burke, a member of the management team, “not many expected us to get this far but we are under no pressure like the other teams.”

Burke added. “Yes, we are the underdogs or dark horses as some say, but we will be playing as hard as the others and we also have ambitions of winning.”

Glenmuir’s Warren Simpson will be seeking to create his own legacy after being the assistant to Walters for a long time, getting the team back to the semi-finals two years after Walters led them to the daCosta Cup title, beating STETHS in the final.

There were some hiccups in the inter-zone round where they lost to St James High and drew with Vere Technical, but did enough to advance as the second-placed team.

They made up grounds in the quarter-finals by beating Cornwall College 2-0, then setting the stage for wins over Lacovia and Old Harbour.