CATHERINE HALL, St James — Defending champions St Elizabeth Technical High (STETHS), the most consistent and successful rural area schoolboys’ football team in the last decade and 11-time champions Cornwall College, the most successful rural school of all time, will clash in what is expected to be a mouth-watering final of the ISSA/FLOW daCosta Cup at the Montego Bay Sports Complex today.

Match time is 6:00 pm.

Both teams have survived a bruising, gruelling season that saw over 90 schools starting the hunt for honours in September, and after failing in one final each earlier, will have the final chance of winning a title this year.

STETHS were beaten on penalty kicks in the ISSA/FLOW Ben Francis Knockout final by first-time champions Lennon High, ending their six-year reign, while Cornwall College came up just short of being the first rural area team to win the FLOW Super Cup, losing to Wolmer’s Boys’ School 1-0.

Both teams, who scored identical 2-1 semi-final wins last week, are over their earlier setbacks, they say, promising fans exciting football today in the first meeting between the schools in the daCosta Cup since 1998.

STETHS beat Lennon High for the second season in the semi-finals, while Cornwall got the better of Clarendon College in a semi-finals for the second time this season after ending their interest in the FLOW Super Cup recently.

STETHS will be seeking their sixth title overall and third in the last four seasons, having played in the last five finals, while Cornwall College are trying to end a 16-year drought since their last success in 2001.

In 1998 when the semi-finals were played in a group format, STETHS had come into the final game at Jarrett Park needing only a draw, but lost to Cornwall College 1-0 with Christopher Sterling’s goal making the difference after STETHS had a goal disallowed.

Unlike his counterpart at Cornwall College, STETHS’ coach Omar ‘Rambo’ Wedderburn who played in the 1998 game as a striker, was happy to accept the favourites tag, telling a press conference held in Kingston Wednesday that “every game we play we consider ourselves favourites”.

Weatherly, who was at the helm in 2001 when Cornwall last won the daCosta Cup, said: “We are up against the defending champions, we can’t call ourselves favourites until you dethrone the champions.”

Both teams have put up impressive records on their way to the final with Cornwall College’s perfect through 17 games, beating the previous record of 16 set by the 2011 champions Rusea’s High.

Overall Cornwall College have played 22 games and have been held scoreless in just two – the Super Cup final final and the semi-finals of the Ben Francis KO against Lennon. They have scored 67 goals.

Fifty-nine of those goals have come in the daCosta Cup with Jourdaine Fletcher leading the way with 28 in the daCosta Cup and Peter-Lee Vassell with 10.

STETHS have lost once in the daCosta Cup this season, a first-round setback to neigbours Lacovia High, but as they have done in the last five seasons, saved their best for the business end of the competition in November and December.

While Cornwall have played one final since they won the Ben Francis KO in 2003, the STETHS team have played in at least two finals for the past four years and will be accustomed to the tension-filled atmosphere.

At Wednesday’s press conference, Wedderburn acknowledged that playing Cornwall College in Montego Bay will be a big challenge. “STETHS know how to play finals, no matter where… if ISSA changed the venue to Cornwall, we are ready (as) we don’t think about spectators (but) only about the game and the game we have in front of us is against Cornwall,” he said.

STETHS will be without one of their top players Romeo Wright who was injured early in the season and Jovoney Brown, who has led them with 19 goals could return from an injury today, but Wedderburn said their focus would be on the players who will be on the field.

Demar James, Cashire Constantine and Alex Thompson have shared the responsibility of leading the team with Brown out and the hopes of the championship could rest on their shoulders today.

Weatherly, who acknowledged that he has “some very good players”, is aware of the massive job ahead of his team.

“On Saturday (today) we have to be focused on the prize at hand, the daCosta Cup, and we have to come definitely with our A-plus game considering we are up against (coaches Wendell) Downswell and Wedderburn, two quality coaches… as usual, its two against one,” he said.

Weatherly, who has led Cornwall to eight titles including the treble in 2001, said: “Even with the worst 11 out there, as long as it is Cornwall College, it’s a big load that you are carrying, so putting on the red and gold is not easy at all.”

Cornwall captain goalkeeper Jamario Hines, who was also at the press conference, said the back-to-back losses to Wolmer’s and Lennon, four days apart, left them “depressed and disappointed”.

“We all were expecting to get four titles, but we did not get it, and at the end of the day, we had to go back to the drawing board and refocus on the main prize, which is the daCosta Cup. We try to stay calm and not overthink, work hard and we are still on course for the main prize.”

Hines has anchored a defence that has given up just eight goals in the daCosta Cup and four in their last seven games and Michael Heaven, Pagiel Brown, Clifton Russell and Howard Dent will be expected to maintain the high standard they have set all season.

In addition to Fletcher, Cornwall have Vassell, Aiden Jokomba, Garnett Hudson, Shavon McDonald and Giovanni Brown who are capable at the other end.