Vignesh Mudliar saves the day for St Joseph’s

Substitute goalkeeper Vignesh Mudliar makes a save against St Joseph’s at Azad Maidan yesterday. Pic/Atul Kamble

Vignesh Mudliar, 11, captain of St Joseph's (Malad) made two crucial saves in the tie-breaker to help his school overcome Bombay Scottish (Powai) 3-1 in the boys' U-12 Division-II semi-final of the MSSA inter-school football tournament at Azad Maidan on Thursday.

After the match ended goalless in regulation time, Vignesh donned the goalkeeper's gloves in the tie-breaker, as did Scottish skipper Shashawat Phuleria. Shashawat scored off the first kick and then blocked Shourya Shirali's shot to give Scottish the advantage.

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But Vignesh's mindgames - he kept shouting in advance that he's going to save the next shot - got to the Scottish lads. Vignesh denied Scottish's Parth Jain and Akhil Mathew, while Adi Chandel's deft chip beat the goalkeeper, but crashed into the crossbar. Vignesh, Dev Patel and Reuven Pillai scored for St Joseph's.

Earlier, Sanvi Chaube scored a hat-trick to power Lilavatibai Podar High School ISC (Santacruz) to a fluent 4-0 win against Canossa HS (Andheri) in a girl's U-12 Div-II semi-final. Harshita Singh scored the fourth goal.

Other results
Girls' U-12 semi-finals: JB Petit High School 5 (N Furtado, R Chakravarty, A Oak, M Sampat, A Oak) bt DG Khetan Int'l School 4 (A Shah, G Sail, G Shah, M Haldankar).
Boys' U-12 semi-finals: Jamnabai Narsee 2 (A Sarraf, J Sharoff) beat Hiranandani Foundation (Powai) 0.