MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Defending champions St Elizabeth Technical High (STETHS) will start the quest for a seventh-straight Inter-secondary Schools’ Sport Association/FLOW Ben Francis Knockout title today when they take on former champions Clarendon College in the first semi-finals at Manchester High, set to start at 2:30 pm.

After both were beaten in the semi-final round of the FLOW Super Cup, the teams will be going after their first of a possible three trophies, and after Friday’s final of the Ben Francis KO, they will turn their attention to the daCosta Cup next week.

The second finalists will be decided tomorrow when losing Super Cup finalists Cornwall College meet Lennon High in their semi-finals at the STETHS Sports Complex in Santa Cruz.

STETHS will be going into the game on the heels of a perfect six-game run through the Inter-zone and quarter-finals of the daCosta Cup competition, outscoring teams 15-3 in the process.

Coach Omar Wedderburn is expecting “a game that the fans will be talking about”.

Wedderburn told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that both teams will be gunning for a win and that could make for “a free-flowing game of attacking football”.

He did admit that his team was not playing up to expectations, but “we have been getting good results and at this stage that is what matters”.

STETHS will have to go after goals without top marksman Jovoney Brown, who has 19 goals all season, but who was injured in their 2-0 win over Petersfield High on Wednesday, and could be out until at least the daCosta Cup final, if his team makes it that far.

Brown is the second prolific striker that the STETHS team has lost this season, after Romeo Wright broke his leg in a first-round game against Maggotty High.

Despite this, Wedderburn said there will be “high expectations” from the game between “two quality teams that want to win”.

He will be depending on Cashane Constantine, Tahjae Palmer and Denroy Miller to carry the goalscoring load.

According to Clarendon College Technical Director Lenworth Hyde, the sooner his team gets back to playing football, the better it will be for the Chapleton-based school.

Clarendon College are coming off back-to-back losses to Cornwall College in the Super Cup and against Spot Valley High on Wednesday after resting several key players.

“We have to get over the losses mentally as quickly as possible,” Hyde told the Observer yesterday.

“We have had two training sessions since Wednesday, and while morale was down, it is our job to get them ready to face STETHS on Monday,” said the former Jamaica standout.

Hyde, however, said that after their game against Spot Valley — which was their only loss in the daCosta Cup since the start of the Inter-zone round, and second of the season overall after losing a game to Lennon High — they would be back to full strength.

Hyde expressed concerns that the teams has been leaking goals, but said his charges have also been scoring. The first priority today, he said, would be to “keep a clean sheet”.

“We have to be disciplined at the back and the defenders must be involved, even when they don’t have the ball, and we have to prevent conceding any goals,” said Hyde, a former Clarendon College star.

In their last two games, Clarendon College have conceded six goals and will hope the combination of Nicque Daley, Ronaldo Richards and Creggton Charlton, who have combined for eight goals in the six games since the start of the Inter-zone phase, will be able to negate anything that STETHS can throw at them.