mid-day Ranis of Rink 2019: Mary Immaculate Girls are mighty champions!

Mary Immaculates Cynara Mendonca (left) and Angeline Antony celebrate a goal in the final v Apostolic Carmel at the mid-day Ranis of Rink 2019 inter-school U-16 football tourney at the Arena 31 Turf near the Neville D�Souza ground on Saturday. Pics/A

Girls from eight leading schools let their hair down, kicked around and had a rollicking time under the bright sunny sky at the mid-day Ranis of Rink 2019, Mumbai-s first girls U-16 inter-school football tournament at the Arena 31 Turf, a SportingLions Foundation initiative, near the Neville D-Souza ground in Bandra on Saturday. The talented footballers were excited and charged up. There was no quarter given nor taken as the girls battled for supremacy. Despite the intense rivalry, the youngsters were sporting enough and did not fail to congratulate one another after each of the 16 matches.

Worthy champions
Mary Immaculate Girls MIG showed their might to emerge worthy champions of ROR 2019. MIG, inspired by the brilliance of sharpshooter Angeline Antony, who finished with an overall tally of 12 goals, brooked little opposition from Apostolic Carmel Bandra to march to a comfortable 3-0 win in the summit clash. Angeline struck twice while teammate Cynara Mendonca added the third goal. Earlier, MIG had beaten the same opponents 5-1 in a Group B league match.

Super tackle!

The Borivli girls, who had finished runner-up, losing to Arya Vidya Mandir Juhu in the Mumbai Schools Sports Association-organised inter-school tournament-s final, were a determined lot and made their winning intentions clear from the start. They had done their homework well as they functioned like a well-oiled unit and held the distinction of finishing with an all-win record.

MSSA champions AVM-s Juhu hopes of going the distance were dashed by Apostolic Carmel in the penultimate round. Apostolic Carmel snatched a close 3-1 semi-final win via the tie-breaker after the match ended in a 1-1 draw. For the Bandra team, Keisha Fernandes scored in normal play and in the tie-breaker she and Jessica Dharmai successfully scored, while AVM scored through Anushree Janakiraman in regulation period and failed to score in the shootout.

Rest is best

In the other semi-final, Bombay Scottish Mahim suffered a late heartbreak, going down fighting to MIG by a narrow 4-5 scoreline. Angeline scored the match-winning fifth goal at the death to secure a tight win for MIG and a place in the final. However, there was some consolation for Scottish as they won the bronze medal match, defeating AVM Juhu 7-6 via tie-breaker after the thrilling encounter was tied 4-4 at the end of regulation time. MIG-s Angeline and Apostolic Carmel-s Ash D-Silva were declared Best Forward and Best Defender respectively and received crystal trophies for their efforts.

Medals and trophies
MIG were presented a glittering trophy and gold medals by former India vice-captain Godfrey Pereira, while MSSA chief Fr Jude Rodrigues presented silver medals and the runner-up trophy to Apostolic Carmel. The bronze medals were awarded to Bombay Scottish by Uncle-s Kitchen United Football Club-s Ronnie D-Souza. Canossa Convent Mahim, Dhirubhai Ambani BKC, Arya Vidya Mandir Bandra, Bai Avabai Petit Bandra were the other challengers.

Celebration time

Dogged defence

Firm footing

Perfect pass

No gain without pain

The referee and his rules

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