Inter-school football: Bosco boys and AVM girls are stuff of champions!

Don Bosco players (above) celebrate their MSSA boys U-16 Division I title win with the support staff

Don Bosco (Matunga) and Arya Vidya Mandir (Juhu) emerged the boys and girls champions respectively in the U-16 Division-I MSSA inter-school football tournament at Cooperage yesterday. Don Bosco were authoritative in their 2-0 win over Bombay Scottish (Mahim) in the summit clash.

Bosco boys' record

The Matunga lads finished with an envious all-win season record while goalkeeper Chris Johnson held the distinction of not conceding a single goal in the tournament. The Bosco boys dished out a slick attacking show with midfielders Ninad Kamble and Vedant Sawant working tirelessly to create openings for the forwards and putting the Scottish defence under pressure. Don Bosco opened the scoring when Keith Fernandes swooped in from behind a defender to tap home Ninad's low centre from the right in the 12th minute. After the change of ends (49th min), skipper Shriharsh Palli doubled the lead when tapped in a Scott Rodrigues-flag kick.

While girls champs Arya Vidya Mandir pose with the trophy at Cooperage yesterday. Pics/Suresh Karkera

Meanwhile, in the girls final, AVM (Juhu) showed rallied to overcome MIG School (Borivli) 3-1. The Juhu outfit were at the receiving end from the start as the Borivli girls launched a series of raids and opened the scoring just when Leann Fernandes tapped home after receiving a pass from Angeline Antony (18th min). But two minutes later, MIG goalkeeper Pearl Negandhi's weak goal-kick was intercepted by AVM medio Vania Nagpal, who trapped the ball and quickly despatched it to the roof of the net for 1-1. That proved to be the turning point. In the second half, AVM had the better of the exchanges and when MIG defender Vaibhavi Shinde handled the ball inside the box, referee Joaquim Varela had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.

Sai shines for AVM

Sai Sankhe converted (39th min) for a 2-1 lead. Sai again found the target when she pounced on a loose ball and scored to seal AVM's triumph and bag her 11th goal of the tournament. The AVM girls left Cooperage immediately for a Subroto Cup U-17 match at the Jamnabai Narsee ground, Juhu. There they beat St Andrew's College (Bandra) 3-1.

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