No travel troubles for Immaculate girls!

8.30am @ Borivli: Mary Immaculate girls celebrate their victory over Apostolic Carmel via tie-breaker in the DSO U-16 Subroto Cup semi-final at St Francis D'Assisi Ground in Borivli yesterday morning. Pic/Nimesh Dave

It was double delight for the Mary Immaculate (Borivli) girls football team yesterday as they won two matches in a day, played across the two extreme ends of the city - the District Sports Office (DSO)-organised U-17 Subroto Cup semi-final at St Francis D'Assisi Ground in Borivli and U-16 Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) Division I tie at Azad Maidan.

In the DSO match, at 8.30am, the Borivli girls beat Apostolic Carmel (Bandra) 4-3 via tie-breaker after both teams were tied 0-0 at the end of regulation time. In the shootout, Samara D'Souza, Tracy Monis, Prateeti Mody and Angeline Antony scored for Mary Immaculate, while only Riya D'Souza, Kesha Fernandes and Ash D'Silva found the back of the net for Apostolic Carmel.

1.30 pm @ churchgate: The same Mary Immaculate girls team (in white) during their 2-0 win over Carmel of St Joseph (Malad) in the MSSAâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088under-16 Division I encounter at Azad Maidan yesterday afternoon. Pic/Suresh Karkera

The Mary Immaculate girls then boarded a Western Railway fast local from Borivli station to reach the MSSA Ground for their 1:30pm fixture against Carmel of St Joseph (Malad). Eliezer Pais and Angeline scored a goal each in their 2-0 win there. While it may not seem fair to make a bunch of kids play two competitive football matches on the same day, Mary Immaculate coach Luke Rosario said it was not a problem because his girls had learnt to adjust with the annual clashes in schedule between DSO and MSSA.

"It is tough for girls as well as boys to play two high-intensity matches back-to-back but they have faced this so often in the past that they are used to it now. We did not ask MSSA to reschedule our match because they did not entertain our request last year. Instead, we requested the DSO officials to prepone our 9.30 am match by an hour, so that we had enough time to reach Churchgate," Rosario told mid-day.

Mary Immaculate striker Angeline, who scored once in both matches yesterday, said the situation has left a couple of players injured. "It's not easy to play two matches in a day. Samara and Deandra Ferrao have hurt her thigh, while I have a back injury, but are happy to have won both matches," she said.

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