E-Paper
St Vincent’s decimate Vidya Valley to enter finals of Loyola Cup
Vincent’s started the new year in style, netting seven goals past a hapless Vidya Valley side, as the tournament resumed after a 10-day holiday break.
The unbeaten under-16 St Vincent’s High School football team advanced to the final of the 7th Loyola Cup after a one-sided win over Vidya Valley High School in the semifinal at the Loyola football ground on Friday.
Vincent’s started the new year in style, netting seven goals past a hapless Vidya Valley side, as the tournament resumed after a 10-day holiday break.
Vincent’s will now play hosts Loyola High School in the final on Monday.
First half
The game was evenly balanced and end-to-end in the opening 10 minutes. Vincent’s were excellent with their long range passing. Thirteen minutes into the first half, Vidya Valley were dealt the first blow of the match when striker Fazal Shaikh curled his effort into the bottom right corner of the goal from the edge of the penalty area. The striker received the ball from the left flank after an excellent run from winger Hitesh Yadav.
Vincent’s were menacing from the wide areas as their wingers Karan Madke and Hitesh Yadav were constantly using their pace and physique to cut inside from the flanks.
Ten minutes after the opener, Madke finally got on the score-sheet after he pounced on an accurate long ball before the opposition keeper could reach it and rolled the ball into the net. Vidya Valley goalkeeper, Kaustubh Patil, was struggling between the sticks after conceding the opener. Just four minutes after the second goal, Patil fumbled and ended up passing the ball straight to Bhargav Sawant. Sawant came on top in the one-on-one encounter and put Vincent’s in a 3-0 lead at half-time.
Second half
Before Vidya Valley could somehow think of a comeback in the second half, Madke caught their defence napping again. Just a minute into the second half, Madke slotted the ball into the net to double his personal tally in the game. Amidst the chaos, Vidya Valley’s Ameya Varade was able to keep calm and read the game well as he made a few important interceptions. However, Varade was outnumbered and did not receive any support from his teammates as they failed to break on the counter.
Vincent’s were able to completely knock the wind out of the Vidya Valley sails as Sawant doubled his tally of the match after another brilliant run from Yadav on the left flank. A rare attack from Vidya Valley saw them win their first corner of the second half. The ball was curled straight into the gloves of the keeper, summing up Vidya Valley’s day.
Nishant Joshi and Ameya Varade tried pushing forward with the ball in an effort to bag a consolation goal at least, but the forwards were unable to apply the finishing touch. On the counter, Vincent’s won a free-kick on the left flank. The set-piece was swung in by Yadav and found its way to Danish Chandargi after bouncing off a couple of heads inside the box. Chandargi smashed the ball into the net from a couple of yards out to score his first goal of the match.
The Vidya Valley defence, which had been one of the strongest in the tournament, collapsed like a house of cards in the second half. Complacent passing with no desire to build-up an attack ensured another Vincent’s goal before full-time. Shaikh, who had opened the scoring for his side, ended up nabbing his second goal of the day, 10 minutes before the final whistle.
After the match
“It is amazing to have all three teams in the final. I just hope all of our teams are able to retain form in the finals.”
- Vansh Shah, captain, St. Vincent’s High School.
“We knew that our opponents had a couple of good pacey players and that was our major concern. I expected them to score first and we almost conceded a goal in the opening stages of the first half, but the moment we got off the mark, I knew we would not look back.”
- Andrew Wilson, coach, St. Vincent’s High School.
Hosts Loyola edge Petit in the dying minutes
In the other under-16 semi-final, hosts Loyola High School were able to earn a hard-fought victory over JN Petit High School. The only goal of the match came two minutes before the final whistle courtesy of Ranapratap Deshmukh. Petit have been eliminated in all the three categories as they also lost 2-0 to Loyola in the under-12 category semi-final.
In the under-14 category semifinals, St. Vincent’s thrashed Loyola 5-0, while Hutchings beat Vidya Valley 4-1. Vidya Valley also faced elimination in all three categories as they lost 2-0 to Vincent’s in the under-12 category.
On Saturday, Loyola and St. Vincent’s will lock horns in the summit clash of the under-16 category. Vincent’s under-14 team will face Hutchings, while their under-12 team will go toe-to-toe with Loyola.
Results Semifinals:
Under-16
St. Vincent’s High School 7 (Fazal Shaikh 13’, 50’, Karan Madke 23’, 31’, Bhargav Sawant 27’, 37’, Danish Chandargi 44’) bt Vidya Valley High School 0
Loyola High School 1 (Ranapratap Deshmukh 58’) bt JN Petit High School 0
Under-14
St. Vincent’s High School 5 (Kevin Chatterjee 4’, 23’, 36’, Kyle Molen 11’, Faris Shaikh 49’) bt Loyola 0
Hutchings High School 4 (Anush Waghmare 9’, 11’, 13’, Raj Ponghia 52’) bt Vidya Valley 1 (Tanishk Gore 25’)
Under-12
St. Vincent’s High School 2 (Ahmed Rapihar 14’, Royden 27’) bt Vidya Valley High School 0
Loyola High School 2 (Shreyas Manchoji 5’, Vedant Gupta 33’) bt JN Petit High School 0
Fixtures: Finals (Monday, Jan 6)
Under-16
St. Vincent’s High School vs Loyola High School.
Under-14
St. Vincent’s High School vs Hutchings High School.
Under-12
St. Vincent’s High School vs Loyola High School.
