Kiaan nets winner as Campion enter semis

Campion scorer Kiaan Mistry at Borivli. Pic/Anurag Ahire

A charged-up Campion School (Cooperage) overcame a spirited challenge from Bombay Scottish (Mahim), recording a 1-0 win in a tense and hard-fought Ahmed Sailor Trophy boys under-16 quarter-final of the MSSA inter-school football tournament at St Francis D'Assisi High School ground, Borivli, on Thursday.

Both Campion and Scottish played positively and with plenty of intensity as they adopted an open attacking brand of football. The match witnessed the two teams showing good understanding in their build-up to attacks and create openings at either end.

The defenders of both teams came under quite a lot of pressure, but they handled it well. The two goalkeepers - Sumer Singh under the Campion bar and Reyansh Vora of Bombay Scottish - made some fine saves to keep their citadel intact. But, Campion's versatile midfielder Kiaan Mistri, 15, a dead-ball specialist, broke the Scottish resistance when he scored from a direct free-kick in the fourth minute of the second half.

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After a Scottish defender handled the ball on the edge of the penalty area, referee Shiddesh Gund awarded Campion a free-kick.

Kiaan's swerving shot hit a defender. Even though goalkeeper Reyansh dived to his right, he only managed to get a touch and could not prevent the ball from entering the net, much to the joy of the Campion boys.

Earlier, Podar International (Santacruz) got the better of Our Lady of Salvation (Dadar) 2-1 in a Div-IV play-off match.

Kaivalya Girkar scored both the goals (17th and 23rd minute) for the Santacruz side, while Kiran Shetye found the back of the net in the 25th minute for the Dadar school.