Naval Dockyard clinch title

TWO AGAINST ONE...A lone CRMD defender (in blue) fights it out with Naval Dockyard players in the MES Independence Cup finals at the St Xav...

TWO AGAINST ONE…A lone CRMD defender (in blue) fights it out with Naval Dockyard players in the MES Independence Cup finals at the St Xaviers ground.

MUMBAI, Aug 10: Naval Dockyard outclassed Central Railway Mumbai Division (CRMD) 1-0 to lift the Mahatma Education Society Open Invitation Football (Independence) Cup at the St Xavier’s ground, Parel today.

It was an upset of sorts with CRMD coming into today’s match as favourites after their consistently good performance in earlier matches of the Cup.

But today it was a different story. Dockyard played superbly to win the trophy. The winner came in the 38th minute of the one-hour match through right-winger Ignatius Mascarenhas.

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Left-half Praveen Goveas passed the ball to the unmarked Mascarenhas who was almost air-borne when he volleyed into the net with a right footer. The CRMD goalkeeper Anthony D’Souza, who had come up with some fantastic saves in earlier matches of the Cup, made a vain attempt, diving to his right.

Mascarenhas could not believe he had scored, as he stood still for a moment after netting the ball. It was only after he saw his team-mates rushing towards him that he raised his arms in triumph.

Dockyard held sway over CRMD right from the start. In the ninth minute, Dockyard mid-fielder Sebastian Caldera came up with a fine floater which glided just over the horizontal bar which brought him applause not only from the crowd, but also saw the Railway goalkeeper clapping his hands in appreciation.

Caldera came close to scoring a goal twice, once in the dying moments of the game, when he glided the ball almost from the border-line. But to his dismay, the ball went inches over the goal-post on both occasions.

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The other encounter saw Rhino Sports Club defeated All Parsees 1-0 to bag the third position. The goal came 15 minutes into the first-half through striker Hekmat Singh.

Raju Kokate of Rhino Sports Club was awarded the `Best Upcoming Player Award’ while Farhad Irani of All Parsees bagged the `Best Goalkeeper Award’. The `Best Player Award’ went to defender Mario Caldera of Naval Dockyard.Earlier, Jet Airways defeated Sonata 1-0 in a Division III league match for the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Trophy. Rajesh Gonsalves netted the winner.

Agnel Aranha starred in St Joseph’s (Mira Road) victory over Wonder Boys in a Division II league match with a fine double. St Joseph’s triumphed 2-1. Mukdum Shah scored the only goal for Wonder Boys.

A Division I league match played in the afternoon session saw Bad Boys Club (SK XI) break Hearts Sports Club 2-1. Poopesh Karkera and Jude Nunes scored for the winners. Murli Nair decreased the margin with the solitary goal for Hearts.

Don Bosco rout Xavier’s

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NIGEL D’Souza and Kamaldeep Singh shared two goals each as Don Bosco `A’ drubbed St Xavier’s 6-0 in an under-14 (I-B) inter-schools football match at Azad Maidan today.

Results

Under-16: IV-E: St Dominic Savio (Andheri) `B’ 2 (Kaviraj Shetty, Alex Anthony) beat Sacred Heart (Santacruz) 0

Under-14: I-B: Don Bosco (Matunga) `A’ 6 (Nigel D’Souza 2, Kamaldeep Singh 2, Adrian Lobo, Denzil Borges) beat St Xavier’s (Fort) 0; II-B: Christ Church (Byculla) 2 (Jayehdra Dalvi 2) beat St Paul’s (Dadar) 0, Don Bosco (Matunga) `B’ 2 (Rochit Shetty, Sidney Pires) beat St Michael’s (Mahim) 0; III-G: St Joseph’s (Juhu) 3 (Cyrus Kinny, Clement Benjamin, Brendon D’Souza) beat St Elias (Khar) 0; III-H: Greenlawn’s (BP) 5 (Ranvir Davda 2, Sahil Timbadia, Bhavish Vasa, Harsh Jain) beat GD Somani 0