Cathedral girls outclass Scottish for U-12 crown

The victorious Cathedral & John Connon (Fort) girls U-12 team with their Div-I trophy at Azad Maidan on Saturday. Pic/Atul Kamble

Cathedral & John Connon (Fort) goalkeeper Kiara Shah, 11, was sharp, alert and confidently made two match-winning saves in the tense tie-breaker to script a satisfying 4-1 tie-breaker win for her school against Bombay Scottish (Mahim) in the girls' under-12 Div-I final of the MSSA inter-school football tournament at Azad Maidan last Saturday.

The team's leading scorer with 10 strikes, Anasuya Raju, captain Ariana Jalan and Amairah Bhasme made no mistake in finding the net in the shootout for Cathedral, while Shreyasi Daga and Anaya Chakravarti failed to score.

The Bombay Scottish girls seemed tense as only Noopur Sonthalia succeeded in converting the first kick. Cathedral custodian Kiara dived to the right to push away Nikunja Sonthalia's shot and later flung herself to the left to block Mia Laporte's try. Scottish's dashing striker Nizh Kapadia and Navya Patil both shot wide.

Also Read: Prisha scores nine as Bombay International rout Rustomjee

This was the fourth title success for Cathedral who had earlier won the Bombay Gymkhana inter-school football tournament and later won back-to-back triumphs in the Anglo-Indian inter-school tournaments at Mumbai and Pune.

"It feels really good to become champions and win four titles this year. In the penalty shootout, I stayed focused and concentrated on the striker and ball and was able to understand which direction she was going to shoot and with a bit of luck I guessed correctly and managed to dive and make those saves," Kiara told mid-day.

Earlier, in the fight for the bronze medal, Bombay International School (Babulnath) defeated Smt RSB Arya Vidya Mandir (Juhu) 3-1.

Prisha Patel, who has scored 11 goals in eight matches, Dia Dwarkadas and Kimaya Mehta scored for the winners, while only Meera Toolsidas scored for the Juhu school.