MSSA inter-school football tournament: Aaron assists St Mary’s to 5-2 win over Holy Family

Aaron Albuquerque of St Mary’s after beating Holy Family on Friday. Pic/Atul Kamble

Midfielder Aaron Albuquerque racked up four assists, playing a key role in guiding St Mary's ICSE High School (Mazgaon) to an emphatic 5-2 win over Holy Family High School (Andheri) in a boys U-16 Division-I match of the Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) inter-school football tournament at the Wings Sports Centre (Bandra) on Friday.

Mohammed Wireman opened the scoring for St Mary's in the eighth minute, smartly heading in a precise corner kick from Albuquerque to make it 1-0. Albuquerque made his presence felt once again by threading a pinpoint defence-splitting pass to Yohaan Kapadia, who doubled St Mary's lead in the 12th minute.

Brace for Kapadia

Kapadia got on the scoresheet for the second time (19th minute), after Albuquerque dribbled past two defenders to set up his teammate, giving St Mary's a comfortable 3-0 lead. Holy Family skipper Alsten Chacko then pulled one back with a sharp strike into the right corner (22nd minute). On resumption, Holy Family, winners of the U-15 Subroto Cup on Thursday (they beat Bandra's St Andrew's 1-0 at the St Francis D'Assisi ground, Borivli, thanks to a goal by Ayan Shaikh), came out with renewed energy with Chacko scoring again in the 32nd minute, narrowing the gap to 2-3.

However, St Mary's stepped up the pressure thereafter and Albuquerque's free-kick deflected off Holy Family's Daksh Rathod and found its way into the net. With six minutes left on the clock, Albuquerque capped his exceptional performance by delivering another dangerous corner which teammate Rohaan Chainani slotted in to seal a 5-2 win. "We had to really push ourselves and I'm happy our effort paid off. We are very keen to qualify for the knockouts," said St Mary's coach Anthony Albuquerque.

‘Stressful week'

Holy Family coach Glen Rodrigues rued the lack of rest for his boys. "It's been a stressful week, considering we've played for five consecutive days before winning the Subroto Cup, but my boys will bounce back strongly," said Rodrigues.

Other results

Boys U-16 Div-I
>> Bombay Scottish (Mahim) 0 drew St Dominic Savio (Andheri) 0

GIrls U-16 Div-I
>> VCW Arya Vidya Mandir (Bandra) 2 (Ira Deshmukh, Tanishka Marshal) bt Thakur Public Vidyalaya (Kandivli) 1 (Charvi Kothari) (Andheri) 0
>> St Xavier's High School (Mira Road) 1 (Inaaya Qureshi) bt Holy Family Convent (Mira Road) 0
>> Cathedral and John Connon awarded walkover vs Jamnabai