DENBIGH High completed the qualifiers for the last 16 of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association/Wata daCosta Cup football competition, after beating Holmwood Technical 4-0 in the Group 5 round-of-32 game at Foga Road High in Clarendon on Thursday.

Lashawn Barnaby scored all four goals for Denbigh High who finished second in the group on four points. They finished ahead of Belair High on goal difference to get into the third round of the competition for the first time in more than a decade.

Despite missing the first three matches of the season during which time Denbigh High won back-to-back games after losing to two-time defending daCosta Cup champions Clarendon College in their season opener, Barnaby has scored 14 goals to lead his team.

Denbigh High, whose only trip to the quarter-finals came in 2005, are confident they can get back to the final eight.

“We think our chances are very good and we hope to get back to the quarter-finals this year,” Denbigh Coach Garfield Carney told the Jamaica Observer on Thursday.

They are in Zone 4 with Central High — whom they met twice in the preliminary round — McGrath High and Manchester High.

Getting into the round of 16 was not completely in their hands as, elsewhere, Happy Grove had to beat Belair to give the Clarendon-based team any hope.

“We could only take care of what we could, and that was to win our game. However, once Happy Grove won and we won, we were in,” Carney said.

Having beaten Central High once and drawn the other match this season, the Denbigh High coach thinks they will have the psychological edge in that matchup.

He added: “Once we can get another win in the zone we should be good to get into the quarter-finals.”

Denbigh, who finished with a goal difference of three versus Belair High’s negative two (-2), will not be short on confidence. They beat Clarendon College in a first-round play-off game to keep alive their hopes of getting into the round of 32.

At Brooks Park in Manchester, visitors Happy Grove High completed a perfect round of 32 — after beating Belair High 5-1 — to join Glenmuir High as the only two schools to not drop any point during the round.

Bonny Chisholm scored a hat-trick to lead Happy Grove High while Shevone Miller added a brace for the team that has scored 44 goals in 13 games this season.

Belair High went into the game with the edge to advance as they were on four points to Denbigh’s one. Belair had lost only once in 12 games this season, but they came up short on Thursday.

After topping Group 5 in the round of 32, Happy Grove will play in Zone 3 in the next round, facing Glenmuir High, Dinthill Technical and Ocho Rios High.

— Paul A Reid

THURSDAY’S RESULTS

Denbigh 4, Holmwood 0

Belair 1, Happy Grove 5