St Paul's beat Rustomjee 4-1 to earn a shot at title after being relegated for not fielding teams in two seasons due to emphasis on academics
St Paul's Cornelius Rodrigues (centre) celebrates with teammates after converting a penalty vs Rustomjee during the MSSA inter-school U-16 semi-final at Cooperage in Churchgate yesterday. Pic/Shadab Khan
St Paul's Cornelius Rodrigues (centre) celebrates with teammates after converting a penalty vs Rustomjee during the MSSA inter-school U-16 semi-final at Cooperage in Churchgate yesterday. Pic/Shadab Khan
Having not fielded a team in the past two Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) U-16 boys' inter-school football tournaments, St Paul's High School (Dadar), in their first season after two years, reached the finals of Div IV at Cooperage ground yesterday as they trounced Rustomjee International School (Dahisar) 4-1 in the semi-finals.
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St Paul's were in Div III in 2014, but did not play the tournament for the past two seasons due to exams clashing with the tournament, which led to their demotion to Div IV.
Phenomenal recovery
The Dadar outfit's road to recovery has been phenomenal so far, as they have not only achieved promotion, but also have a shot at the Div IV title.
The game kicked off with both teams showing tremendous energy. Rustomjee started the brighter of the two. But soon, St Paul's got a firm grip on the game and started to dictate the play. Long balls were missiled into the box, which made Rustomjee defenders extremely uncomfortable.
Pressure finally told as Rustomjee conceded a penalty in the 15th minute which Cornelius Rodrigues duly converted. Then, against the run of play, Rustomjee got the equalliser in stoppage time of the first half, when Om Ved's freekick found a way in.
After the resumption, Rustomjee looked a lot better and created chances. But, St Paul's Harshad Dhumale put his side in front in the 32nd minute with a long-range shot.
Rustomjee, in their attempt to restore parity, were left exposed at the back, which ultimately led to their downfall.
Harshad got his second in the 40th minute, while Praful Solanki wrapped things up for his side three minutes from time.
'Confident of winning title'
Malcolm Blakely, the winning team's coach, was ecstatic having reached the finals of the tournament and is confident of winning the competition.
"It's a proud feeling to reach the finals. Our team is really good. We were in Div III a couple of years back, but we stopped playing. So it's good to be back where we were. But we want to win the whole thing and we are confident about it," Blakely he told mid-day.
In the other semi-final, St Rock's High School (Andheri) defeated St Elias High School (Khar) 4-1. St Rock's Pasha Shaikh scored a brace with Prakash Mandaknali and Shantu Kattimani scoring one each. Ashutosh Salvi scored the only goal for St Elias.
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