U-17 boys win first match
SHILLONG: After being unbeaten in their earlier matches, St Anthony’s HS School, Shillong, went down by a solitary goal to NCC (North Eastern Region) in the third quarterfinal of the U-14 Subroto Cup football touranment in New Delhi on Friday.
St Anthony’s, representing Meghalaya in the competition, looked the better team for most of the match, but one lapse was enough for the NCC boys to take and hold onto the lead.
The Meghalaya team built up their attacks well, but NCC, always on the back foot, were able to resist their initiatives.
NCC took the lead just before half time.
St Anthony’s lost a little heart after conceding the goal and the second half was a more even affair, but neither team could score and the match ended 1-0 to NCC.
Meanwhile, in the U-17 boys competition, OM Roy Memorial HSS of Meghalaya won their first match in the competition in Pool E, beating DPS Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, 1-0 on Friday, according to the tournament’s official website.
OM Roy will next face a Tripura school on Saturday and one from Tamil Nadu on Sunday.
The winner group will then play the top team from Pool F in a quarterfinal on October 13.
In other U-17 matches, former champions NCC (West Bengal & Sikkim) rode on an Anil Kujur strike to beat North Eastern English School, Manipur, by a single goal and give their campaign a winning start.
Another team from the North East, Tripura, drew 0-0 with Tamil Nadu.
Chowbaga High School, West Bengal, beat NCC (Odisha) 2-1 and Welham Boys School, Uttarakhand, were 2-0 winners over Govt Sr Sec School, Car Nicobar.
The two most one-sided matches were reserved for the afternoon session, however, when Kerala hammered Chhattisgarh by six goals to nil and Army Boys, Patna, defeated Air Force Bal Bharati School, New Delhi, by the even bigger margin of 8-0.
Back to the sub-junior tournament, there was a shock victory for Betkuchi High School of Assam, as they recorded a 1-0 victory over defending champions Greenwood School, Nagaland, to enter the final for the first time.
It was a well earned victory for the boys from Assam who had to defend fiercely for much of the game.
The team from Nagaland held the upper hand for most of the first half but Assam’s Birkwdao Daimary scripted an unexpected twist in the script just before half time with a well-taken corner which eluded Greenwood goalkeeper Pitoka to find the net.
As his team mates exploded with joy after the final whistle, Daimary was the very picture of steely determination.
“It was a lucky goal. We now have to win the final,” he said.
