St Pius X down Don Bosco to enter quarters

Shaun Carneiro of St Pius (left) vies for the ball with a Don Bosco player at Azad Maidan yesterday. Pic/Suresh Karkera

St Pius X (Mulund) cashed in on the two opportunities that came their way to record a hard-fought 2-0 win against Don Bosco (Matunga) in a pre-quarter-final match of the Mumbai Schools Sports Association-organised Utpal Sanghvi boys' U-14 knockout inter-school football tournament at Azad Maidan yesterday.

Don Bosco were more dominant but were let down by poor finishing. However, the St Pius defenders, centre backs Samuel Kagnulkar and Sulaiman Mukri along with the wing back Vinayak Karkera and Paras Jadhav were rocked solid and combined well to make some timely tackles and clearances to keep the rival attackers in check. Goalkeeper Welkin Mukri had an excellent game and made some fine saves to ensure his citadel was intact.

After a barren first half, St Pius took the lead when Shaun Carneiro tapped home Samuel's free kick from the left to put his team in front in the 35th minute. In the 49th minute, Dhruv Shetty dribbled past a hosts of defenders before pacing past goalkeeper Rohnit Talwar to seal their win and set up a quarter-final meeting with Cathedral & John Connon (Fort) on Monday.

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