Adair’s hat-trick helps Don Bosco progress

Don Bosco’s Adair D’souza (left)battles for possession with a St Blaise player in Borivli yesterday. Pic/Nimesh Dave

Reigning first division champions Don Bosco High School (Matunga) unleashed a much improved second-half performance to register a resounding 4-1 victory against St Blaise High School (Andheri) in a boys U-16 Ahmed Sailor knockout match of the MSSA inter-school football tournament at the St Francis D'Assisi ground, Borivli, here on Tuesday.

Though not at the fluent best, the Bosco boys still had enough ammunition to progress, courtesy a hat-trick from their captain Adair D'Souza while midfielder Keegan Peres netted the fourth goal in the closing stages of the match.

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St Blaise did well to enter the half-time break with the score reading 1-1 against their fancied rivals after a superb long-range strike by Prince Singh cancelled out Don Bosco's first-minute strike by Adair. On resumption, however, the Bosco boys turned the tide in their favour, netting thrice by end of the opening quarter.
In an earlier match, Don Bosco (Borivli) came from a goal down to beat Bombay Scottish (Powai) 6-5 via tie-breaker after the teams were locked 1-1 at the end of the regulation time.

For the Borivli school, Malekal D'Silva restored parity in the second half, while in the ensuing penalties, Cristiano Lewis, Reenesh Kotian, Aarav Kataria, Devesh Jadhav and Aaryan Gomes were on target. Scottish, who had taken the lead through Ranit Senthilnathan, saw their penalties converted by Ranit, Akshai Shetty, Rian Sangam and Aarush Bhattacharya.