Defending champions Mona High will play Jamaica College (JC) in a match of immense interest in light of what transpired at the end of the Manning Cup season last year.

Last year, during Mona’s Manning Cup victory celebrations, they stormed the JC property in an ugly incident that was caught on video, and this could fuel a heated match come Tuesday between two schools in close proximity.

Mona High are the favourites from Zone A and will compete with Kingston College, Jamaica College and Tivoli Gardens High in what is expected to be a very competitive group. This zone has the last three Manning Cup champions in KC (2021), JC (2022) and Mona (2023) and it will be a fight to the very end.

Zone B might not have the big names but will be just as competitive with the likes of St Catherine High, Excelsior High, last season’s beaten finalist Hydel High and the improving Campion College.

The quarterfinal round kicks off on Tuesday with four games all at 3:00 pm, with the Mona versus Jamaica College match-up at Calabar High School being the pick of the bunch. At the start of the season, these two teams were seen as the potential finalists and they still could be, but any defeat in this game would severely hamper both teams’ chance of making the semi-final. Mona High will start favourites and should prove too hot for the boys from Old Hope Road. Mona is coached by Craig Butler who played Manning Cup for JC in the early 1980s.

In the other Zone A encounter, Kingston College welcome Tivoli Gardens to the Stadium East. KC have had good results against Tivoli Gardens over the years and should fancy themselves of picking up three crucial points as they hunt another semi-final spot. But the Christopher Nicholas-coached boys from West Kingston must not be taken lightly and could upset the applecart.

Last season’s runners-up Hydel High rebounded well from their 1-6 humiliation to KC and reached the quarterfinal and they take on Excelsior High at the Ashenheim Stadium at JC hunting another trip to the semis. Excelsior has been a solid team and are favoured to beat Hydel, but it should be a close encounter between the two as Hydel, which are short of enough quality players but has two that can win any game for them.

Highly touted St Catherine High play Campion College at the Spanish Town prison Oval in what should be an intriguing encounter. St Catherine are one of three unbeaten teams in the Manning Cup and they will have to show what they are made of against an improving Campion College team that has lost only to KC and Mona. They will be hard to beat.