Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

Having successfully cleared Wednesday's semi-final hurdles, St James High School and Dinthill Technical will be gunning for the first title of the ISSA/Pepsi/Digicel rural schoolboy season this afternoon when they square-off in the Ben Francis knock-out final, starting at three o'clock.

In their semi-final against the much-vaunted Lacovia High on Wednesday, St James High were pushed all the way but emerged 2-1 winners courtesy of goals by Allan Ottey and Nicholi Barrett.

Dinthill's passage to the final was much smoother as goals by Rajay Bennett, Detroy Perez and Alliste Redding gave them a big 3-0 win over Old Harbour.

Based on the record of the two teams during the daCosta Cup preliminary campaign and the earlier round of the Ben Francis KO, it seems quite clear that both are in spanking form, fairly high on confidence and clearly possess championship qualities.

St James are bubbling with confidence after going through Zone A of the daCosta Cup preliminary round, winning 10 games and drawing two, while scoring 36 goals and conceding eight, before bowing into the Ben Francis KO where they started out with a 2-1 win over Marcus Garvey, followed by a 2-0 win against Godfrey Stewart.

Hard work

"We have put in the hard work so we are fully expecting to get positive results," said Pastor Hugh Solomon, coach of St James High.

"The school has never won any of the major schoolboy football titles and the boys want to change that this year."

Dinthill, which completed Zone J of the daCosta Cup preliminary round with seven wins, one draw and two defeats while scoring 32 goals and conceding 12, have emerged an awesome opponent in the Ben Francis KO, roughing up Paul Bogle 5-1 before the dazzling 3-0 win against highly-rated Old Harbour.

"Our plan is to go all the way this season and we believe we have the players to get the job done," said Everton Burke, manager of Dinthill, who is hoping this team will emulate the 1979 and 1981 championship-winning teams.

"We are a confident team and every time we go out to play we do so expecting to get a positive result."

Looking at the composition of both teams, St James appear quite solid in all departments and playing with the kind of confidence they have been showing, many feel it is going to take a special effort to contain, let alone beating them.

With players such as John Barrett, skipper Fabian McHarty, dazzling midfielder Ricardo Morrison, and strikers Allan Ottey and Nicholi Barrett who share 20 goals between them, one can readily understand the confidence emanating from the MoBay team's camp.

Despite having to travel halfway across the island for this game, Jarrett Park has been a happy hunting ground for St Catherine's Dinthill over the years. In addition, with players like Kevin Skyers, Rosario Harriott, Carlos Smith, Bennett, Perez and Redding all in sparkling form, it will not be easy to intimidate this Dinthill team.