MSSA news: Don Bosco, Stanislaus in title battle

Christ Church’s Abdaar Chashmawala (left) tries to get past Sahil Surguroh of St Stanislaus. Pic/Atul Kamble

Defending champions Don Bosco (Matunga) and challengers St Stanislaus (Bandra) took different routes to the boys' U-16 Division-I final of the MSSA inter-school football tournament.

On Thursday, in the first semi-final, the Matunga boys inflicted a 5-0 defeat on an uncharacteristic St Mary's ICSE (Mazgaon), while the Bandra boys struggled to get past Christ Church (Byculla) 4-1 via the tie-breaker at the Cooperage, Churchgate.

Don Bosco's drew first blood through midfielder Christiano Fernandes (15th minute). Ten minutes later, right winger Yohaan Panjuani deftly placed the ball in the far corner of the net to make it 2-0. In the second session, Don Bosco's pumped in three more goals with Harsh Kadam, scoring two (32nd & 47th minutes), sandwiched by Yohaan's second (41st).

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In the second semi-final, St Stanislaus did the bulk of the attacking, but failed to finish well as the score read 0-0 at the end of regulation time. In the tie-breaker St Stanislaus successfully converted through Ameer Mozayan, Elijah Fernandes, Divesh Kudekar and Bhisham Parmar, who also stood in the goal during the shootout and made two saves. Bhisham saved the first two shots from Christ Church shooters Abdaar Chashmawala and Abizer Manasawala, while only Muhammad Mojawala managed to beat him.

Meanwhile, in a Div III match at St Francis D'Assisi ground, Borivli, St Lawrence HS (Borivli) beat Sacred Heart Boys HS (Khar) 1-0 with striker Anirudh Salunke scoring the decisive goal. In another match, Cambridge School (Kandivli) routed Ryan International CBSE (Kandivli) 5-0. Joshua D'Mello scored twice, while Neel Shah, Dhruv Kondvilkar and Ninad Mohite added one each to complete the tally.