by Suman Gupta
St. Blaise charge to fluent 7-0 victory
Mumbai: St. Blaise ‘A’ (Amboli) proved too strong for St. Joseph’s (Umerkhadi) and charged to a facile 7-0 victory in a Men’s Open quarter-final match of the Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana organized 5-a-side Rink football tournament, played under floodlights at the gymkhana’s tennis courts.
The Amboli outfit showed good coordination and worked well as a team to outplay their opponents and scored at regular intervals to run away with the game. Striker Hasim Rogankar played the lead role by scoring a brace of goals while his teammates Egan Fernandes, Dustin D’Costa, Jayesh Sutar, Joel Fernandes and Junaid Coutinho, all chipped in with one apiece to complete the winning tally.
In the second match, St. Paul’s (Dadar) pulled off a satisfying 2-0 win against a spirited St. Anthony’s ‘A’ (Vakola) in another last eight match. Strikers Mervin Stephen and Lance Fernandes were bang on target with a goal each.
Later, in an exciting and keenly contested encounter, Mount Carmel’s (Bandra) managed to scrape past Holy Cross ‘A’ (Juhu) by a fighting 3-2 margin. Mount Carmel capitalized on the chances that came their way to score their goals through Nester Mascarenhas, Nathan Rozario and Akshay Saptoji, while for Holy Cross both the goals were struck by Siddhesh Batawale.
In the concluding match of the evening, fancied Our Lady of Lourdes ‘B’ (Malad) got the better of St. Joseph’s ‘D’ (Juhu) by a clear 3-1 margin. Elvin Fernands scored two goals and Yash Khanvilkar got one to secure Our Lady of Lourdes win while St. Joseph got a consolation goal through Ajay Mangela’s efforts.
Results – Quarter-finals: St. Blaise ‘A’ (Amboli) 7 (Hasim Rogankar 2, Egan Fernandes, Dustin D’Costa, Jayesh Sutar, Joel Fernandes, Junaid Coutinho) beat St. Joseph’s (Umerkhadi) 0.
St. Paul’s (Dadar) 2 (Mervin Stephen, Lance Fernandes) beat St. Anthony’s ‘A’ (Vakola) 0.
Mount Carmel’s (Bandra) 3 (Nester Mascarenhas, Nathan Rozario, Akshay Saptoji) beat Holy Cross ‘A’ (Juhu) 2 (Siddhesh Batawale 2).
Our Lady of Lourdes ‘B’ (Malad) 3 (Elvin Fernands 2, Yash Khanvilkar) beat St. Joseph’s ‘D’ (Juhu) 1 (Ajay Mangela).