Don Bosco (Matunga) registered a 3-0 win over Dominic Savio (Andheri) to win the Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) Oliver Andrade League boys' U-10 hockey final at St Stanislaus ground, Bandra yesterday
The Don Bosco under-10 team with the trophy
Don Bosco (Matunga) registered a 3-0 win over Dominic Savio (Andheri) to win the Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) Oliver Andrade League boys' U-10 hockey final at St Stanislaus ground, Bandra yesterday.
The Don Bosco under-10 team with the trophy. Pic/Sameer Markande
The win is commendable on two counts. Firstly, 14 of the 18 boys in this team are part of the school's U-10 football team that has reached the quarter-finals of the MSSA Div I football tournament. Secondly, with the football season in progress simultaneously and matches every alternate day, this team has hardly had any time to practice their hockey drills.
ADVERTISEMENT
No practice time
"This title is very special because we just have four hockey players in this team. All the others are football players, who have only been practicing football throughout the year. In the last week or so, they have been playing football matches continuously and only came for hockey practice a day before each hockey match — in totality, we got them to practice hockey together for barely four-five days," said Don Bosco coach Javed Sayed.
The boys hardly have any time to celebrate their hockey win. "They are back to football after this. They have a Div I quarter-final tomorrow at the MSSA ground in Azad Maidan," added Sayed. Bosco's footballers dominated the proceedings in yesterday's hockey final from the word go.
Harsh Palande scored a brace while Justin D'Souza added the third to register the impressive win. The Matunga school's U-12 team however went down to arch-rivals St Stanislaus (Bandra) in the other final of the day. Sean Gonsalves and Joshua D'Souza scored a goal each for the Bandra side.