MANDEVILLE, Manchester — The ISSA/FLOW Ben Francis Knockout title, the first rural area trophy of the season, will be decided this afternoon when six-time defending champions St Elizabeth Technical High (STETHS) meet first-time qualifiers Lennon High at Manchester High School starting at 2:30 pm.

In what could be seen as a match-up between seasoned veterans and neophytes, neither camp is overlooking the Ben Francis Cup, but both teams are seeing the game as a stepping stone to the daCosta Cup and the rural area double.

On Tuesday, Lennon High edged Cornwall College 1-0 in their semi-final game at the STETHS Sports Complex in Santa Cruz to advance a day after STETHS outlasted Clarendon College 4-3 in sudden-death penalty kicks at Manchester High to march into the final many have renamed the STETHS Cup.

Lennon High have been riding a wave of success since their narrow escape from the first round, beating Clarendon College in a rescheduled first-round game to advance to the Inter-zone round ahead of Thompson Town High and have defied the odds to be participating in their second major boys’ football final.

The school that is more widely known for their dominance in female football had played in the daCosta Cup final in 2010 when they were edged by Rusea’s High at Jarrett Park.

On the other hand, STETHS have one of the most successful high school football programmes in the last decade. Their six-straight Ben Francis KO titles and three daCosta Cup titles since 2009 are testimony to their dominance.

Yesterday, both coaches told the Jamaica Observer they were ready for the final and ready to lift the first silverware of the season in rural Jamaica.

STETHS’ coach Omar Wedderburn said winning the Ben Francis KO would “reward the team for a good season and give us extra motivation for the daCosta Cup.”

“We have not won anything for this year yet and this is the first chance, so we are looking forward to it as this is important to the players and the school on a whole,” he said.

Today will be the biggest day for the programme at Lennon High, and while coach Merron Gordon insists that he does not regard his team as underdogs, it would be hard to convince others.

Gordon, however, points out that they have done what was required of them to get this far. “We have beaten some big schools and we did not just beat Cornwall College on Tuesday, we played well,” he noted.

He did concede, however, that his team were not scoring their chances, and after scoring a single goal in their last six matches, winning the last four in a row, Gordon concluded: “We are woeful in front of goal.”

“…But our defence is solid and we are concentrating for the entire game so our chances to win is as good as STETHS’,” he said.

“When you prepare scientifically and peak at the right time, you will get success,” he told the Observer.