24 July,2019 07:55 AM IST | | Akshay Jagtap
Apostolic Carmel striker Riya D'souza (right) evades a tackle from Parinaz Wadia of Bai Avabai Petit during their MSSA U-16 Division-I quarter-final at the Cooperage ground yesterday. Pics/Suresh Karkera
Defending champions Apostolic Carmel (Bandra) made it to the semi-finals of the Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA)-organised girls U-16 Div-I football tournament yesterday thanks to a timely strike by Riya D'Souza.
The striker scored the only goal of the encounter against Bai Avabai Petit (Bandra) at the last minute of a hard-fought quarter-final at Cooperage yesterday. Both teams played with equal intensity.
If Apostolic were going with their attacking strategy, the Avabai girls were well equipped in their defence. With both teams refusing to give an inch, it seemed that the knockout clash would go into the tie-breaker. However, Riya had other ideas. With a few seconds left on the clock, she neatly breached the Avabai defence and smashed the ball into the goal, beating custodian Perizad Gorimar all ends up.
"I just didn't want the match to go into a shootout. I just wanted to score anyhow," said Riya, a state-level player and also her team's highest scorer with five goals in the tournament so far.
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AVM striker Sai Sankhe
AVM's Sai scores hat-trick
The Bandra girls will face Arya Vidya Mandir (Juhu) in the first semi-final on Thursday. Yesterday, AVM's lanky striker Sai Sankhe produced a hat-trick as the Juhu side came up with a dominant 3-0 win over Dhirubhai Ambani International (BKC) in the quarters.
Earlier in the day, in another quarter-final, Bombay Scottish (Mahim) beat VCW Arya Vidya Mandir (Bandra) 3-1. Harshali Mandadkar (3rd minute), Pranita Nimkar (15th) and Ananya Biswas (25th) scored a goal each for the Mahim team while Roshni Pai (35th) pulled one back for the Bandra outfit.
Scottish to play MIG in semis
Scottish will take on Mary Immaculate (Borivli) in the second semi-final. The Borivli girls beat Cathedral and John Connon 3-2 via the tie-breaker yesterday after the full-time score read 0-0.
In the shootout, Tracy Monis, Angeline Anthony and Pearl Negandhi scored for Mary Immaculate, while only Tanisha Laud and Ananya Pupala managed to hit the target for Cathedral.
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