Loyola Cup: Vincent’s decimate Hutchings

Vincent’s striker Fazal Shaikh scores three goals and helped his side smash seven past Hutchings.

Pune On day 3 of the 7th Loyola Cup, St Vincent’s high school went toe to toe with Hutchings high school at the Loyola football ground on Thursday. In the under-16 category, Vincent’s striker Fazal Shaikh bagged a treble and helped his side smash seven goals past Hutchings, conceding only one goal in the process to make it two wins in as many games. The Vincent’s under-16 side have now scored 13 goals in two games as they gear up to face the other undefeated side of their group — JN Petit high school in their final Group A encounter on Sunday.

Ball passes between Hutchings goalkeeper’s legs during the match against St Vincent’s at Loyola school on Thursday. (MILIND SAURKAR/HT)

Hutchings went into the game without a day’s break as they played and lost against JN Petit on Wednesday, while Vincent’s had a concern of their own. Players of the under-16 Vincent’s side had to attend their prelim exams in the morning and then report to the venue to play the match. However, both sets of players did not look jaded on the pitch in the first few minutes of the game.

First half

Vincent’s managed to tip the scale in their favour after Hutching’s defender Abhyuday Rathore conceded a free-kick on the right flank after he brought Vincent’s winger Karan Madake down with a clumsy challenge. Madake whipped the set-piece into the penalty area as Bhargav Sawant sprung the highest to nod the ball home and gave Vincent’s a very early lead in the fourth minute. The Hutchings defence was caught napping just a minute later as four Vincent’s attackers stormed the box.

Amidst the chaos, Fazal was able to get his right foot to the ball and slotted it in to double his side’s lead. As Hutchings were struggling to get the ball into their opponent’s half, Vincent’s played with a very high back line, which made matters worse for Hutchings. The tight press earned Vincent’s their second free-kick of the game, this time it was about 30-yards away from goal.

The distance posed no challenge for defender Parth Raut as he spotted Hutchings keeper Kunal Parmar way off his line and immediately struck a perfectly lofted shot over the keeper and into the net. After committing a silly error, the keeper let his team down once again just a few moments later. Sawant received the ball at the edge of the Hutchings penalty area and unleashed a shot straight at the keeper. Astonishingly, the ball slipped through the keeper’s gloves and rolled into the goal through his legs to give Vincent’s a commendable 4-0 lead.

Seeing their keeper making too many mistakes, Hutchings used their first substitution of the match in the first half itself as they threw on substitute keeper Siddharth Karmalkar to replace Kunal. Vincent’s did not allow Hutchings to register a single attempt in the first half of the match and managed to add another goal to their tally just before the half time whistle. Winger Hitesh Yadav paced inside the box and played in a short cross from the left which came straight to the unmarked Fazal. Fazal, who was right in front of an open goal made no mistake in tapping the ball in to make it five, just before the half-time whistle.

Second half

After stamping their authority on the game, Vincent’s dropped their tempo in the second half, allowing Hutchings to finally prowl forward. However, poor passing in the final third let Hutchings down and allowed Vincent’s to break on the counter-attack. After losing the ball in Vincent’s half, Hutchings were slow to drop back and defend as Karan found acres of space on the right flank.

The winger provided his second assist of the game as he lofted in a sublime cross from the flank which was headed into the goal by Fazal. After conceding six goals, the Hutchings goalkeeper produced a fine save in a one-on-one situation against Fazal. Keeper Karmalkar went down just in time to block Fazal’s goal-bound shot and parried it out for a corner. Midway through the second half, Hutchings finally managed to launch an attack through Shehzaad Shaikh and Anuj Hambir. The run was thwarted, but the clearance landed in the feet of Harsh Darda who unleashed a powerful strike, but his effort only managed to skim the crossbar.

From the resulting goal-kick, Vincent’s keeper Vansh Shah played a very cloddish pass which went straight to Hutchings’ substitute Parth Nahata. Parth pounced on the opportunity and slotted the ball past the keeper to bag a consolation goal for his team. After conceding a goal, Vincent’s stepped up their game and started pressing forward again. After pushing the Hutchings defence and midfield into their own box, Vincent’s scored the last goal of the game in a scrappy manner courtesy substitute Darwin Lobo.

From the dugout

“The pitch here is really good and it is so easy to play on such a surface. Despite scoring seven goals, I felt that the team was little weak. We have to work on certain aspects of our game before our next match if we want to progress through to the knockout phase. The weakness may have also crept in because of the fact that we had an exam earlier today. The players finished their paper and then came to play today.”

Fazal Shaikh, HT Player of the Match, St Vincent’s high school

Results (Matchday 3)

Under-12

St Vincent’s high school 1 (Shounak Dhopte 34’) bt Hutchings High School 0

JN Petit high school 2 (Tanish Hiranwar 3’, 13’) bt Vidya Bhavan 1 (Shayaan-Ul-Haque 16’)

Under-14

St Vincent’s high school 4 (Kevin Chatterjee 7’, 28’, Aalon D’Souza 45’, Kyle Mollen 46’) bt Hutchings high school 1 (Valentino D’Souza 3’)

Vidya Bhavan 3 (Neel Dagde 9’, Aniket Dhingra 33’, Tanishq Shah 48’) bt JN Petit high school 1 (Rohan Uttekar 21’)

Under-16

St Vincent’s high school 7 (Bhargav Sawant 4’, 19’, Fazal Shaikh 5’, 17’, 31’, Parth Raut 12’, Darwin Lobo 54’) bt Hutchings High School 1 (Parth Nahata 56’)

JN Petit high school 2 (Aman Shaikh 32’, Hitesh Rathod 42’) bt Vidya Bhavan 1 (Shreyas Jagtap 45’)