With Clint playing in the heart of the defence, the Stanislaus lads defended resolutely to deny the Bosco attackers from finding the net and then relied on counters to raid the rival citadel
St Stanislaus with the MSSA Utpal Sanghvi U-14 football trophy at Cross Maidan on Saturday. Pic/Prakash Parsekar
Leading by example, St Stanislaus High School (Bandra) captain Clint Fernandes demonstrated his versatility in large measure on Saturday. First, he was the pillar of strength in defence and then by producing a match-winning save which enabled his school complete the grand double. Clint's astonishing diving save in the crucial tie-breaker enabled Stanislaus carve out a tense 5-4 win against arch-rivals Don Bosco (Matunga) in the Utpal Sanghvi boys U-14 knockout final of the MSSA inter-school football tournament at the Goans Sports Association ground, Cross Maidan. Stanislaus had earlier lifted the U-14 Division-I League crown.
With Clint playing in the heart of the defence, the Stanislaus lads defended resolutely to deny the Bosco attackers from finding the net and then relied on counters to raid the rival citadel. However, both teams did not succeed in scoring a goal during regulation period. In the penalty shootout duel, Clint converted from the first kick to give Stanislaus the lead and ran under bar replacing regular goalkeeper Sitanshu Shetty. He immediately justified his decision with a fine save from Don Bosco's Zarayus Anlesaria's shot from the first attempt.
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A cool and composed Clint displayed superb anticipation and silver-quick reflexes as he stretched fully to the left and pushed out Zarayus low shot. That save inspired Clint's teammates as Calvin D'Souza, Atharva Bhandare, Kenan Pereira and Steve Fernandes ensured they did let their skipper and the school down as they all converted their attempts to seal their triumph. Don Bosco scored through Sergius Barretto, Bryan Gasper and Vignesh Shetty. Earlier, Bombay Scottish (Mahim) scored twice in the second half through Aarhan Bhatt and Cayden Dias to overcome St Mary's ICSE (Mazagon) 2-1 in the third place match. St Mary's had taken the lead with Aarln Cordiero scoring in the opening minute of the match.
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