Scottish boys beat Bosco to win U-12 football title

Bombay Scottish players after winning their final. Pic/Atul Kamble

Bombay Scottish (Mahim) emerged champions after getting the better of Don Bosco (Matunga) 5-4 via the sudden death tie-breaker in a well-contested and engrossing boys' under-12 Div-I final of the MSSA inter-school football tournament at Azad Maidan on Wednesday.

The Matunga schoolboys, who had conceded an early goal scored by Bombay Scottish's talented footballer Daksh Garg in the third minute, managed to snatch an equalising goal scored by Vismay Shetty at the death to force a 1-1 draw and extend the contest to the penalty shootout.

In the tense tie-breaker, strikers of both teams were under pressure and after the first set of five kicks, the scores were tied at 3-3. In the sudden death, Daksh, who replaced goalkeeper Shaurya Mahangade, blocked Vihaan Charaniya's attempt. Later, Shaurya confidently converted to ensure Bombay Scottish clinch the top honours.

Also Read: Daksh Garg stars in Bombay Scottish's 2-1 win

In the shootout duel, Bombay Scottish succeeded in scoring through Reyansh Deshpande, Ethan Deniz, Armaan Agarwal and Shaurya in the sudden death, while a tense Daksh, who finished with nine goals in seven matches, surprisingly shot straight into the rival goalkeeper Aryan Parab, while Tejas Vadakoot shot over. Don Bosco failed to capitalise on the advantages as only Arnav Nair, Jacob Singh Kshetrimayum and Brendon Barretto managed to score from the penalty spot. Naveen Ganesan directed his shot into the goalkeeper Shaurya's hands and Caleb Dias sent the ball over the crossbar. Vihaan's attempt was saved.

Earlier, in the third place match, St Anne's ICSE (Mazagaon) prevailed over St Stanislaus HS (Bandra) 5-4 via the tie-breaker after the match finished in a goalless draw.

Aaron Albuquerque, Ayaz Sayed, Arius Dadiburjor, Zakariya Motiwala and Thian Sanjana, all scored for St Anne's, while Bhargav Dabke, Ehsaan Ansari, Advait Parab and Daiyaan Shaikh could convert for the Bandra school.

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Boys' U-14 Div-I: Bombay Scottish (Mahim) 4 (Yash Kapadia 2, Raghav Kanodia, Ayden D'Souza) beat St Mary's SSC (Mazagaon) 0; St Lawrence HS (Kandivli) 0 drew with Dhirubhai Ambani International School (BKC) 0; St Paul's HS (Dadar) 2 (Gururaj Mane, Adhyatan Rane) beat Cambridge (Kandivli); The Cathedral & John Connon (Fort) 4 (Rian Uniyal 3, Yuvaan Vaidya) beat Smt RSB Arya Vidya Mandir 1 (Arun Dhangria)