Vincent’s strike gold at last

He was particularly pleased with Shane Pereira, Lincoln Dias and his goalkeeper Sham Pednekar — players he said were at the peak.

The success gladdened Vincent’s supporters after a premature exit for their under-19 team and their juniors — who were eliminated in the last-eight stage. Coached by Jerry Dass, a former Goa junior football player, Vincent’s under-17 outfit lived up to their reputation of champions although they endured rough weather en route to the title clash.

SSPMS (B) coach Gangaram Choudhary sportingly said: “We are offering no excuses — the better team always prevails.

Choudhary praised his striker Devendra Vaidya and midfielders Sandeep Godambe and Sopan Gunjal at the centre of the hosts fightback after trailing 0-1 at half-time.

Vincent’s made a late entry to the ground but they got down to business without further ado. They struck in the 9th minute of play — Bushan Bruno proving much faster than his opponent defenders as he outpaced them to put it across a hapless ‘keeper Dadaseheb Konde into the net.

However, the Vicentians failed to sustain tempo, conceding a goal nine minutes later. The hardworking Sopan Gunjal curved in their second corner kick and amid a melee Devandra Vaidya volleyed home past Sham Pednekar.

Despite end-to-end action, the scores remained unaltered and the teams resigned themselves to the tie-breaker.

Yasir Bagwe who was off colour during the regulation time made sure with his first kick in the penalty while Vincent’s had a bad beginning as Eric Anthony hit straight to Dadasaheb Konde — a rare but fleeting moment for the SSPMS camp. The remainder of the shoot-out attempts turned abortive while Vincent’s made amends with neat conversions to bring smiles among the school’s supporters.