Mayur anchors Nagarvala

In the mini section, ENNS began with a bang, forcing a penalty-kick early. However, the joy of gaining the lead fizzled out as ENNS8217; Abidali Mulla, who otherwise does not fumble with opportunities of this sort, sprayed the ball wide, courtesy heavy underfoot conditions. The after-effect was spontaneous 8212; Abidali stomped his foot, shook his head and continued with possibly the thought that 8220;it8217;s all in the game,8221; running through his mind.

ENNS, thereafter, worked in unison and looked far more attractive than their opponents. The breakthrough finally came midway into the first-half. A fumble by SSPMS 8216;keeper Ranjit Deshmukh, who ventured out deep and a hasty collection found striker Rohan Yendralwar capitalising and finishing with a left-footed placement.

At the stroke of half-time, SSPMS8217; right-winger Sumit Patil came up with the best opportunity in the otherwise ENNS dominated half 8212; a half hearted effort which dangerously sailed over the bar.

Changing ends, it was Mayur all the way. An on-the-run finish from the left-flank after Rohan Botre put him in position helped ENNS to a 2-0 lead. And to make matters worse for SSPMS, they conceded the second penalty of the match when defender Niraj Tripathi in a bid to clear a high rise ball missed connecting and the bounce that followed found his hand. The resultant was converted by Mayur who slotted past the diving 8216;keeper to his left.

Earlier in the day ENNS seniors found themselves at the receiving end as early as the 20th minute of the game through Alphonso Rajkumar. Changing ends, ENNS restored parity though Nilesh Satav to push the match into the tie-breaker.

The resultant saw ENNS8217; Shailesh Gadge and Abhijit Barne shoot wide and Nilesh had his effort stopped by 8216;keeper Kunal Pillay. For St Joseph8217;s Ravindra Swami, Alphonso and Akash Salsa found the mark to decide the game after in just three sets of kicks.

In the junior section, JN Petit continued their unbeaten run in the championship with a facile 7-0 H/T: 2-0 win over New English School Ramanbaugh. The winners accounted for their tally via Shailesh Sapkal 2, Anupam Samuel 2 and Abhijit Palande 2 and Ravindra Chavan.

In the evening session, Vidya Bhavan riding on two goal efforts by R Iyer, Nishant Fernandes and Bikram Choudhary got past Sardar Dastur Boys 6-0 in the senior section.

With this win the victors are through to the semi-finals wherein they await the winners of the all SSPMS quarter-final scheduled for August 12.

In the juniors section earlier, SSPMS B defeated Vikhe Patil 4-0 with Praveen Salunke, Vishwanath Bhagat, Rahul Patil and Bakhir Bagave chipping in one goal each. They now await the winners of Dastur and their SSPMS Boarders in the semi-final clash.

After a barren 40 minutes tussle, Vidya Bhavan pipped Dastur H 4-3 via the shoot-out Minis. Akshay Lohoti, James Johnson, Swapnil Ghawade and Navel Fernandes scored for Vidya Bhavan while A Ali, Mohammed Began and Faizal Khan were successful for Dastur H.

In all six matches were played on the opening day with the remaining six to be played tomorrow before the semi finals scheduled for August 12.