Jamnabai on a high!

The victorious Jamnabai Narsee girls U-16 Division-II team at Borivli yesterday. Pic/Satej Shinde

Jamnabai Narsee (Juhu) held their nerve to beat JBCN International (Borivli) 3-2 via penalty shootout in a keenly contested final to emerge girls under-16 second division champions of the MSSA inter-school football tournament at St Francis D'Assisi ground, Borivli on Friday. Jamnabai were clearly the better team and looked good with their passing and movement. They also earned quite a few free-kicks from good positions, but were unlucky to hit the woodwork as the score read 0-0 at full time.

Viho nets decisive penalty

The Juhu girls though finished deserving winners via sudden-death after the tie-breaker was also locked 2-2. Viho Parikh struck the decisive penalty under pressure to spark off joyous celebrations for Jamnabai. Her teammates Nehchel Bright and captain Ashlesha Pathankar had earlier scored in the tie-breaker.

Radhika to the rescue

For JBCN, who led in the tie-breaker initially, Aahana Arun Kumar and captain Radhika Thakur were on target. Interestingly, Radhika donned the goalkeeper's gloves in the shootout and made three crucial saves, but it was not enough for JBCN to finish victorious.

"It was a good game. We were a bit unlucky initially because we had chances and should have finished the game in open play. We also had set-piece situations but were not able to make use of them. Our opponents were good, but our midfield did a good job of marking their dangerous players and denying them any space," Jamnabai coach Siddesh Birajdar told mid-day.

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JBCN coach Rakesh Pawar rued his team's inability to execute their game plan. "Our strategy was good, but we failed to execute what was planned because the opponents were constantly pressing in the midfield. Our midfield was unable to function as well as we wanted," he said.

Don Bosco girls finish third

Earlier, in the third place match, Don Bosco International (Matunga) got the better of Army Public School (Colaba) by a solitary goal with the match-winner scored by substitute Shveni Pakodia in the closing stages.