Northern just escape RCF overhauling

Earlier in the afternoon, North-Eastern defeated Central Railway by a solitary goal to book a semi-final berth from Pool B. They finished second in the pool because of an inferior goal difference than Western. Western, the last year’s runners-up, meet RCF in the second semi-final scheduled tomorrow.

Centre-forward Sarika opened the account for RCF in the sixth minute following a swift counter-offensive. Northern Railway’s Manjinder Kaur then converted a penalty stroke to draw levelafter RCF right-half Rajwant used her body to block Northern Railway’s right-winger Fardina Ekka from scoring. The defending champions then took the lead in the 26th minute when Pritam Rani scored following a neatly executed penalty-corner.

In the opening minute of the second session, Jyoti S Kullu and Sarika worked in close unison down the middle in grand fashion before Jyoti beat helpless and onrushing Northern goalkeeper Suman Deswal with a neat flick to make it 2-2.

Northern had to wait until the last minute to score the match-winner due to some good goalkeeping by RCF goalkeeper Atwari Munda. Fardina Ekka netted the ball from close after trapping a Majinder diagonal for the Northern match-winner.

For North-Eastern, the all-important goal came in the sixth minute through Meenakshi who made the most of a penalty-corner.

Naeem’s golden touch
Naeem Jagani’s golden goal helped St Andrew’s enter the final of the MSSA-Colgate inter-school hockey U-14 boys tournament, for Fr Donnelly Cup, at StAndrew’s High School today. They will meet St Anne’s, who prevailed over St Stanislaus in a sudden death tie-breeaker.

Results (all semis)
Boys U-14 KO: St Andrew’s 2 (Tyron Pereira, Naeem Jagani) bt Don Bosco, Matunga 1 (Appachu Boverianda); St Anne 4 (Fletcher Fernandes, Dylan Sequeira, Reece Pereira 2) bt Stanislaus 3 (Shane Vanshipley, Joshua Vessaonkar, Delon Misquitta) via tie-breaker (0-0).

Girls U-14 league: Apostolic Carmel 1 (Vanessa Bothelo) bt St Teresa’s, Santacruz 0 via tie-breaker; St Joseph, Vikhroli 3 (Nabila Qureshi, Dhvani Gogri, Roxanne Jeffers) bt Carmel of Joseph 0.

Easy for Sainath
Gulf Oil Sainath Sports Club thrashed Royalers, Juhu, 5-0 in the WIFA Second Division football league at the Cooperage, today.

Ronak Shaikh, Chandra Murti, Shailesh Hate, Ashok Pisce and Rashid Shaikh scored in that order for the winners.

Other results
Div. II: Indian Gymkhana 1 (Jude Patel) bt Goregaon SC 0. Div. III: Banjara SC 0 drew with CBD FC 0.