Thakur College of Science and Commerce, Kandivali, and Father Agnel Multipurpose School and Junior College, Vashi, who were in line for a double, had to be content with one title each in the Mumbai leg of the Reliance Foundation Youth Sports Football Tournament, which concluded here on Friday.
In the finals played at the Reliance Corporate Park, Ghansoli, FrAgnel ruled the school girls' category routing St Andrews College, Bandra 7-1 but their senior boys suffered a 1-3 defeat via tie-breaker to Thakur College.
Thakur College lads’ hopes of a double were dashed when they went down to Rizvi College of Arts, Science and Commerce 6-5 via sudden death in the college boys final. It was a gruelling 90-minute battle that ended 1-1 paving way for a shootout.
Player of the match Sanchit Bhatt put Rizvi ahead in the 15th minute but a defensive lapse in the 44th minute led to Thakur getting a penalty which Shannon Pereira converted for sthe equaliser.
Rizvi did well to fend off the Thakur challenge despite playing the last 30 minutes of the match with 10 men, as their midfielder Somesh Thakur was sent off after a second booking.
In the shootout, Rizvi have to thank their goalkeeper Uzair Ansari as he affected three saves in all to help the last year's runners-up claim the title. Royston Castelino, Venkatesh Devkar, Sanchit, Rosenberg Gabriel and RinaldoFernandes converted their penalties.
Shannon, Melroy D’Souza, Nihar Jadhav and MayurSuvare scored for Thakur but Shaunak Ghorpade failed to beat Ansari in the sudden death and the defending champions had settle for the runners-up spot.
