Christ Church beat Cathedral via shootout to win U-10 title

The Christ Church players with their trophy. Pic/Sameer Markande

Christ Church ICSE School (Byculla) played with grit and determination to emerge champions, defeating Cathedral & John Connon School (Fort) 4-3 via tie-breaker in the final of the MSSA Cup boys under-10 inter-school football tournament, at the MSSA School Sports Centre, Azad Maidan on Thursday. The scores were 1-1 at the end of regulation time.

Cathedral enjoyed a major share of the attacks. In contrast, the Christ Church boys showed tremendous resilience to keep their attackers at bay. However, Christ Church's resistance ended in the 28th minute. Cathedral striker Viaan Shah scored through a peach of an effort. He pounced on a loose ball and shot from the right to beat Christ Church goalkeeper Mazin Shaikh much to the cheer of his teammates.

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That setback infused life into the Christ Church attack and they launched a series of raids at the Cathedral goal. They managed to find the crucial equaliser three minutes later. Ilhan Kardame initiated a long solo run from just inside the Cathedral half and then kept his cool to slot the ball home past an onrushing goalkeeper Aarav Doshi.

In the tie-breaker, the Christ Church youngsters converted through Azaan Merchant, Zidaan Amrelia and Rehan Loladia, while Ilhan's shot was saved by Cathedral goalkeeper Aarav. In contrast, the Cathedral boys scored only two, through Aryan Doshi and Arujun Sodha. Arin Bhana's shot was saved by goalkeeper Mazin, who dived low to his left to block the shot. Viaan and Arhaan Doshi then fired wide. Earlier, Anish Kalyadappu scored the lone goal as Don Bosco (Matunga) defeated Dr Antonio da Silva 1-0 in the third-place match.