St Teresa’s, Don Bosco emerge U-16 champs

The St Teresa’s girls celebrate with the trophy and medals after their win over Children Academy on Sunday. Pics/Ashish Raje

Riding high on goalkeeper Prachi Kadam's heroics under the bar, St Teresa's Convent High School (Santacruz) emerged victorious in the girls U-16 MSSA inter-school hockey tournament, defeating Don Bosco High School (Borivli) 3-0 in a tense tie-breaker.

Both teams had their chances during regulation time but failed to convert, leading to a decisive penalty shootout. Prachi proved to be the star of the game, saving all three attempts by Don Bosco's Nisha Shetty, Danica Colaco, and Viva Kumar. On the other hand, St Teresa's Yukti Dabho, Nirja Redkar, and Arya Kamble successfully converted their strikes to secure the win.

The Don Bosco boys with their trophy and medals at the Don Bosco School ground in Matunga

Meanwhile in the boys U-16 final, Aaditya Rane of Don Bosco (Matunga) scored the all-important goal against Children Academy (Malad) to clinch the title. Aaditya struck for the Matunga outfit at the stroke of half-time after receiving a pass from Raj Shirke, placing it in the bottom left corner with ease.

In the girls semi-final, Don Bosco (Borivli) beat Children Academy (Malad) with a comfortable 2-0 win. In the second semi-final, St Teresa's beat Carmel of St Joseph (Malad) 3-2 in the tie-breaker. In the boys semi-finals, Don Bosco (Matunga) beat St Antonio D'Silva High School (Dadar) 4-3 via tie-breaker, while Children Academy (Malad) defeated Don Bosco (Borivli) 2-0.

Prachi Kadam and Aaditya Rane

Tony Pinto, coach of St Teresa and Don Bosco (Borivli), smiled and said: "I couldn't be biased so I made the assistant coaches take charge of today's game. Hence, I sat in the stands, happy with both my teams in the final and I am happy with the outcome." Coach of Don Bosco Rizwan Khan said: "We were confident of winning today. This team have been playing together for the past four years. We created many chances, we could have scored more."