MSSA: St Teresa's, Don Bosco dethrone champions in under-16 finals

The victorious Don Bosco (Matunga) U-16 girls and boys champions. pics/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

St Teresa's Convent (Santacruz) crashed at the final hurdle and surrendered their crown to Carmel of St Joseph's (Malad), losing 2-3 in the girls' U-16 Division-I final of the MSSA inter-school hockey tournament at the SAI ground in Kandivli on Saturday.

Defending champions St Teresa's dominated play from the start and created the better chances, but their prodigality in front of the rival goal let them down. Consistent scorers Hetal Goswami, Noella D'Souza and Sanjana Salunkhe were surprisingly off-colour and failed to latch on to the opportunities that came their way. St Teresea's failed to convert as many as eight penalty corners.

Meanwhile, Carmel of St Joseph were fortunate to survive the onslaught even as they too missed out on two penalty corner conversions, leading to a goalless stalemate.

In the shootout, St Teresa's scored from their first two attempts, through Noella and Hetal, but missed their next two. There was further misfortune for the Santacruz girls as Savi Sakpal beat Carmel goalkeeper Vaidehi Gorivale in the fifth attempt but saw her shot crash into the post.

The victorious Carmel of St Joseph (Malad) U-16 girls and boys champions

On the other hand, Carmel of St. Joseph converted through Divya Pithava, Alreya D'Souza and Trinelle Vaz to win 3-2 and emerge champs.

Later, Don Bosco (Matunga) dethroned holders St Stanislaus (Bandra), cruising to a fluent 3-0 win in a scrappy boys' U-16 final. Atharva Bandekar (7thth minute), Aditya Kabre (21st) and Krish Nandrajog (39th) got the goals for Don Bosco.

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