Shillong: Smit SC breezed into the semifinals of the Sentinels Football Tournament on Monday by taking down Nongkseh SC 9-0, but it was a harder battle for Madanriting SC, who beat a valiant Mawlai SC 1-0 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here.
In the morning, Ernester Malngiang got his second goal of the competition when he gave Madanriting the winning goal in the 53rd minute against a Mawlai side that showed a lot of fight, but just could not find a goal.
Smit, meanwhile, appeared to start just the way they left off in their first match, when they put 17 goals past Mawshbuit SC.
There were not quite so many goals in this match, but they dominated throughout the second quarterfinal of the knockout competition, which has been organised by Assam Rifles with support of the Meghalaya Football Association as part of the former’s 181st Raising Day celebrations.
Smit has put together a very good squad for this tournament with several top Meghalaya players in the ranks, but poor marking cost Nongkseh dearly, with the first goal coming in only the ninth minute.
A free-kick off a foul was curled in by Rustom Khriam for captain Kyrshan Lynshing, who headed the ball into the upright only for it to come straight back to him and he made no mistake with his second attempt.
Kitbor Kharkongor then got his name on the scoresheet 10 minutes later with a header off a corner and RL Nongbri made it 3-0 in the 22nd minute after receiving a cross from the left flank for an easy tap in.
Smit still did not take their foot off the pedal and with just a third of the match gone by, Wanlamsuk Nongkhlaw added another by slotting the ball from the six-yard box low into the net after receiving a cross.
From this point on Smit were content to play possession football, but they still managed another goal in first half stoppage time when a long ball was met by Nongbri, who fired low past the goalkeeper.
A couple of long distance goals from Kharkongor (62nd) and Shankupar Kharbyngngar (70th) showed that Smit came out after the half time break hungry for more.
Nongkseh, to their credit, never gave up the fight, but they found it hard to get much possession and when they did, their attacks broke down before getting anywhere close to scoring.
Khriam (76th min) and Nongkhlaw (82nd min) were unmarked when they fired their respective goals to close the contest.
Nongkhlaw’s two goals from Monday take him to nine in total during the Sentinels Football Tournament, after he scored seven against Mawshbuit and he is the lead scorer by a long way. Madanriting will now take on Smit in the first semifinal on March 10.
