SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Former champions Cornwall College and Clarendon College will put their 2016 season on the line today when they meet in the semi-finals of the Inter-secondary Schools’ Sports Association/FLOW daCosta Cup at the St Elizabeth Technical Sports Complex, starting at 2:30 pm.

It will be the second meeting of the two schoolboys stalwarts this season, after their epic FLOW Super Cup semi-finals at Sabina Park, but since then the teams have combined for five losses.

What had promised to be a clean sweep of all the titles for either team has been reduced to the daCosta Cup and, possibly, the Olivier Shield for both.

Cornwall College lost in the Super Cup final to Wolmer’s Boys’, and then the semi-finals of the Ben Francis KO to Lennon High three days later, both by 0-1 scorelines.

After losing to Cornwall College 2-4 after coming from behind to lead 2-1 in the first half, Clarendon College then lost a daCosta Cup quarter-final game to Spot Valley High in Clarendon, and the Ben Francis KO to STETHS on sudden-death penalty kicks after a 2-2 regulation time score and 3-3 after extra time.

The winner of today’s game will face the winners of the other semi-final, which will be played tomorrow between defending champions St Elizabeth Technical and newly crowned Ben Francis KO champions Lennon High at Manchester High in the final set for December 3.

Cornwall College’s Dr Dean Weatherly said his players, “know what’s at stake and we have been working hard”.

“They know what we have to do and training has been going well; the attitude so far has been good,” he added.

Having beaten Clarendon College in the high-stakes Super Cup semi-finals would have given his team “somewhat of an advantage”, Weatherly conceded, but he hastened to add that with the brain thrust at Clarendon, they would be making their adjustments as well.

“Yes, there is an advantage in terms of we know what to expect, we have a basic idea and knowledge of the players in their talent pool… it is helpful in that sense, but still we have to go out and execute and work very hard if we are to get anything from this game,” noted Dr Weatherly.

Cornwall College have scored over 60 goals in their first 19 games, led by Jourdaine Fletcher’s 27 strikes, but were held scoreless in their two losses.

The veteran coach sought to pour cold water on the suggestion that his team was over-reliant on Fletcher and Peter-Lee Vassell for the team to play well.

“Yes they are the senior players and the leaders, and our system puts them in the position to score and they are doing what they are there to do, [but] we have eight more outfield players and we have been getting goals from other players as well,” Weatherly said.

After missing the first four games in the first round, Vassell started brightly with 10 goals, the last one coming against Glenmuir High in the first game of the quarter-finals, but at least seven other players, including Aiden Jokomba, Garnett Hudson and Shavon McDonald, have made meaningful contributions.

The Clarendon combination of Nicque Daley, Creggton Charlton and Ronaldo Richards almost always promises goals and they will have a score to settle against Cornwall College, the first team to score four goals in one game against them in decades.

The Paul “Tegat” Davis-coached team has sat for more than a week after playing up to three games in a week and will be rested and ready to go when the first whistle sounds today.

At press time yesterday, the Observer was unable to get comments from Clarendon College’s coaching staff, led by Technical Director Lenworth Hyde and Davis.