Riding on defender-turned-goalkeeper Keval Doshi's heroics, Infant Jesus School (Malad) beat St Paul's (Dadar) 3-2 via penalties in yesterday's Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) inter-school football U-14 Div II semi-final. Thus, the school earned a maiden promotion to Division I.
Keval effected five saves and also scored in the tie-breaker to help his team register a dramatic win via sudden death after both sides were locked 0-0 at the final whistle. In the shoot-out, both teams replaced their goalkeepers. Keval came in place of Jainam Doshi while St Paul’s Ranson Patel replaced Omkar Mahadik.
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Keval and Shivanshu Pandey were on target for the Malad outfit, while Sahil Hate and Harshad Dhumale scored for St Paul’s, sending the game into sudden death with the teams tied at 2-2.
For Infant Jesus, Bharat Shetty, Vikas Gund and Pawan Mourya misfired, while Ranson Patel, Harsh Naik and Duran D’Souza were unable to score for St Paul’s.
In the sudden death, Sammer Shaikh made no mistake from the spot, handing the Malad team a deserving promotion to the elite division.
Infant Jesus coach Narayan Moolya said: “This is the first time we are promoted to Div I. It’s a very big thing for these boys and the school. I hope they continue their winning form.” u00a0St Xavier’s (Fort) beat Colaba Municpal 3-0 via tie-breaker in the other semi-final.u00a0