It’s a gold medal for Da Silva boys!

The victorious Dr Antonio Da Silva U-10 team. Pic/Gordon D’Costa

Dr Antonio Da Silva High School (Dadar) emerged champions, defeating Jankidevi Public School (Andheri) 2-1 via the tie-breaker to win the boys U-10 final of the MSSA inter-school football tournament at Azad Maidan on Saturday.

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The summit clash, played between two evenly balanced outfits, saw both teams adopt an open attacking style of play with plenty of goal-scoring action at either end. The Dadar boys, coached by Francis Fernandes and his son Revelino, gradually came into their own and started to call the shots as they created the better chances, but were unable to capitalise on the openings. Harsh Rampelli came close to giving Antonio Da Silva the lead, but his free-kick crashed into the crossbar and went over.

In the second session, Antonio Da Silva continued to hold the upper hand, but this time the Andheri lads fought on gamely and also had their chances. However, both teams failed to break the deadlock and the score read 0-0 at the end of regulation time. In the ensuing tie-breaker (three kicks each), Antonio Da Silva successfully converted twice, through Harsh Rampelli and Aarush Shinde while Jankidevi managed to score only one through Yusuf Shaikh. Jankidevi captain Atif Shaikh and Zidan Shaikh failed to hit the target.

Earlier, Green Acres School (Chembur) got the better of Hill Spring High School (Tardeo) 1-0 in the third-place encounter. After a barren first half, Green Acres captain and dashing striker Jivin Upadhyaya scored the winner.