24 September,2012 08:15 AM IST | | Sundari Iyer
St Anne's (Malad) striker-turned-goalkeeper Kirk Alvares' heroics helped his team lift the boys U-16 Div II title of the Mumbai Schools Sports Association's (MSSA) inter-school football tournament at Azad Maidan on Saturday.
Kirk effected three crucial saves and also scored in the tie- breaker to help his team register a dramatic 5-4 win over St Lawrence (Kandivli) via sudden death after the teams were locked 0-0 at regulation time.
Celebration time: St Anne's striker-turned-goalkeeper Kirk Alvares (wearing gloves) celebrates with teammates after winning the MSSA U-16 Div II title at Azad Maidan on Saturday. St Anne's beat St Lawrence (Borivli) 5-4 via tie-breaker. Pic/Atul kamble
St Anne's made two changes in the goal during the penalty shootout.
Karan Vira replaced regular goalkeeper Rohan Arote for the first three spot-kicks. And when that didn't work, Kirk stood under the bar for the fourth and fifth shots. After the scores were tied at 4-4 after the first five kicks, the result had to be decided via sudden death.
In the tie-breaker, Kirk, Karan, Francis Pereira and Rhean Mascarenhas were on target for St Anne's, while Lalit Suthar, Tejas Sawant, Ankit Pal and Vivek Kanani scored for St Lawrence. In the sudden death, Adrian D'Cunha scored from the spot for St Anne's, while Jeril Johnson and captain Slawyn Mascarenhas missed their chances.
Three saves
Kirk denied St Lawrence's Jay Sahani, Rahul Yadav and Saianand Manety from the spot.
"It's only my first year as coach of this team. The whole team deserves the title as it's a collective effort. I won't single out one player for the win as they have all worked hard. My duty was to give them the best training facility and they have made me proud today," said St Anne's coach Sudhir BT.
Results: B-16-III-Final: St Xavier's (Bhandup) 5 (Viraj Dahanukar 2, Brandon Sequeira, Utkarsh Chavan, Omkar Ugade) bt Colaba Municipal (Colaba) 0.u00a0
