Aayush shines in Don Bosco's 1-0 win over St Joseph’s

Aayush Kharat (in red) of Don Bosco vies for the ball with St Joseph’s Kishore Thakulla. Pic/Anurag Ahire

Reigning champions Don Bosco High School (Matunga) carved a fighting 1-0 win over St Joseph's High School (Wadala) in a boys U-16 Div-I quarter-final play-off match of the MSSA inter-school football tournament at the St Francis D'Assisi High School ground, Borivli, on Wednesday. The Matunga schoolboys snatched an early advantage when Aayush Kharat scored the decisive goal following an assist from Ethan Fernandes in the fourth minute.

Later, St Joseph's lads made plenty of concerted efforts to get back into the game, but their attack was not sharp enough to put pressure on the Bosco defence. Instead, Bosco created better chances in the second half and one attempt from Prithvi Padwal bounced back after hitting the horizontal bar.

St Stanislaus into semis

Later, last year's runners-up St Stanislaus High School (Bandra) scrapped past a spirited Bombay Scottish (Mahim) snatching a 1-0 victory to join the Bosco boys in the semi-finals. Consistent goal scorer Yohan Britto scored the lone goal midway through the second session. Yohan, unmarked inside the box, calmly chested down Elijah Fernandes's long cross and deftly placed the ball past Scottish goalkeeper Reyansh Vora to secure Stanislaus's win.

Also Read: Don Bosco, Stanislaus move into quarter-finals

In the semi-finals, Stanislaus will meet Cathedral & John Connon, who beat St Dominic Savio (Andheri) by 1-0 margin. Prolific scorer Ruhaan Dhaul with a snap left-footer from the left of the six-yard box, beat goalkeeper Darsheel Aware to the near post and struck the goal which helped Cathedral emerge victors.

St Paul's win via tie-breaker

In the first match of the day, St Paul's High School (Dadar) got the better of St Joseph's Secondary School (Malad) 5-4 via tie-breaker after the match ended in a goalless draw. In the penalty shootout, St Paul's converted through Avinash Vinherkar, Manthan Walke, Rudra Patil, Avanish Madkar and Gururaj Mane, while St Joseph's managed to score through Tyrell Fernandes, Gaurav Murliar, Avinash Sharma and Vedant Sonar.