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Green Lawns' Prachin Jain celebrates after scoring against St Joseph in the U-16 Nike MSSA Div IV match at Azad Maidan yesterday. PIC/ VISHAL KELKAR |
Last week, Indian footballer Sunil Chettri's hat-trick, which helped India book a place in the Asia Cup, seems to have inspired local lad Prachin Jain score a hat-trick in a span of just eight minutes.
Prachin's exploits helped Green Lawns (Worli) thrash St Joseph's (UmarKhand) 9-0 in the group stage of the Nike-MSSA U-16 Div IV inter school football tournament at Azad Maidan yesterday.
Thrilled
"I can't express how I feel. When I saw the third goal go in, I was thrilled. One of my teammates Aditya Singhania had dreamt that I would score a hat-trick. It was also my dream to score one," said an ecstatic Prachin.
Prachin was hoping for a double hat-trick but doesn't mind waiting for it. "I really wanted to score a double hat-trick, but I missed it by just one goal. I will try harder in the next match. If I would have got a double hat-trick, I would have treated my friends. But there's always a next time," said the 15-year-old.
Podium finish
Last year, the team reached the pre-quarters and are aiming for a podium finish this time.
"This time we know we can do it because we have been practising hard. We want to see our team being promoted to the third division. As this is our last year in school we want do it," said the tenth standard student.
Results:
B-U-16-IV-O: Greenlawns 9 (Prachin Jain 5, Varun Bhutwala 2, Mirant Shah 1, Kunal Gawande 1) bt St Joseph's (Umarkhand) 0.
