MSSA: Don Bosco, Utpal Sanghvi progress to under-12 final

Don Bosco's Abhishek Ahiwale (left) attempts a shot during the boys U-12 semis against St Francis D'Assisi at Azad Maidan. Pic/ Suresh Karkera

The schoolboys from Don Bosco (Matunga) and St Francis D'Assisi (Borivli), both put up a strong fighting display and were locked in an engrossing tussle for supremacy in the boys under-12 Division-II semi-finals of the MSSA inter-school football tournament at Azad Maidan on Thursday.

But, the Matunga lads managed to scrape through by recording a fighting 2-1 victory and advance to Saturday's final.

Don Bosco started in rousing fashion and grabbed the advantage with striker Abhishek Ahiwale hitting the target in the very seventh minute and they managed to go into the breather with a slender 1-0 lead. The Bosco outfit started the second session in similar attacking mode. After just four minutes on resumption, Aaron Guddeti netted the second goal to double their lead. St Francis D'Assisi not prepared to give up, started to make a series of attacks on the Don Bosco goal and put their defence under tremendous pressure. But, the D'Assisi team could only score one goal through Sego Kohli's effort in the 31st minute.

Earlier, Utpal Sanghvi Global School (Juhu) continued their impressive winning form and defeated Ascend International School (BKC) by a comfortable 3-1 margin.

Lakshya Jhawar, Anamay Arora and prolific scorer Shounak Shah scored a goal each for the Juhu outfit, while Sam Eisenberg got the lone goal for the losing team.

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