Army's maiden march to U-16 Division II title

Army Public School (Colab) with the MSSA U-16 Division II trophy yesterday. Pic/Suresh Karkera

The fine efforts of goalkeeper Sahil Achrekar and attacking midfielder and consistent goal-scorer Anish Singh were instrumental as Army School (Colaba) recorded their maiden boys' U-16 Div II title triumph yesterday. The Colaba schoolboys beat Hansraj Morarjee Public School (Andheri) 1-0 in the final of the Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) inter-school football tournament at Azad Maidan. Custodian Sahil made some brilliant saves, while Anish struck the winning goal in the 34th minute.

Jinx broken
Anish, who has scored three hat-tricks in the tournament and a total of 12 goals, was super excited. "The win means everything to me. We are so happy because it's the first time we have become champions. In the last two years, we were runners-up, losing in the Div IV and Div III finals," Anish told mid-day. Goalkeeper Sahil was sharp throughout. He exhibited fine reflexes and agility as he rescued his team by making as many as three timely saves, all in the first period, to deny the rivals from taking the lead. His best effort was in the 19th minute when Hansraj striker Tej Vesavkar's shot took a deflection off a defender towards the right post, but Sahil showed good anticipation and flung himself to the right to push the ball away for a corner.

He later said this was his best match in the competition. "I have finally managed to make major a contribution to the team's success. In the previous matches, I was hardly tested by the rival attackers as our defenders played well and did not give away an inch," said Sahil.Hansraj Morarjee held the upper hand in the first session and created the better chances, but found goalkeeper Sahil a hard nut to crack. In the second half, the scenario was the opposite, as the Army boys did the bulk of the attacking and were rewarded with that elusive goal. Ace marksman Anish made a solo run down the middle and on advancing into the box, fired a rasping drive past Hansraj goalkeeper Samarth Keshe to trigger celebrations in the Army camp.

St Xavier's finish third
Earlier, in the third place match, St Xavier's (Fort) got the better of Utpal Sanghvi (Andheri) by a 2-1 margin. Ronit Mehra and Abdul Chougle scored a goal each for St Xavier's, while Utpal Sanghvi scored through Fahel Khan.

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