MSSA Football: Yash nets solitary goal in St Paul's win

St Paul's's Yash Nihalje (left) vies for the ball against Gopi Birla's Aarav Shah during their MSSA U-16 knockout match. Pic/Suresh Karkera

St Paul's (Dadar) showed excellent teamwork to completely dominate Gopi Birla School (Walkeshwar), but they were unable to capitalise on their scoring opportunities as they could muster only one strike to clinch a 1-0 win in the Mumbai Schools Sports Association-organised boys's U-16 match of the Ahmed Sailor knockout football tournament at Azad Maidan yesterday.

Skipper Soham Shintre along with Yash Nihalje, who scored the lone goal, Saumitra Mane, Smit Chandorkar and Soham Anekar led their attack and they worked in tandem to make a series of incisive runs towards the rival goal. But after advancing deep, they were unable to open up the game and attempt clear shots at goal. Credit should also go to Gopi Birla goalkeeper Tanay Shah for restricting St Paul's to a solitary goal. He made some brilliant saves to deny St Paul's of at least three certain goals.

In the first half, Tanay showed great reflexes after attempts from Soham and Yash. In the second half, Tanay charged out in time to beat the rival attackers from getting to the ball.

St Paul's finally succeeded in finding the net in the third minute of the second half. Captain Soham, with a swerving long free-kick from the right, found Yash at the far post and the latter did well to get to the end of the pass and slot home from close, much to the relief of the St Paul's camp.

In another match, St Lawrence (Kandivli) scored twice in the second half to overcome Rosary HS (Dockyard Road). Strikers Jatin Ratate and Harsh Dubey netted a goal each to secure St Lawrence's victory.

Other results
Boys's U-16: Gokuldham HS (Goregaon) 5 (Harsh Salunkhe, Shaan Joshi, Laya Arun, Vyam Patel, Aditya Barikar) beat Ryan International (Chembur) 4 (Arnay Anoakar, Rudrapratap Singh, Sainath Kuraba, Vishesh Chaudhary) via tie-breaker. Full-time: 0-0

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