Shanthan’s hat-trick helps Jaffna to crush Ambalangoda
R. Shanthan scored a hattrick to help Jaffna record an overwhelming 4-0 win against Ambalangoda in the final of the FFSL Under-16 Inter-Regional Football Championship 2016 at the Kelaniya Football Complex last Sunday.
Shanthan opened scoring for the victorious Jaffna outfit in the 18th minute while R. Reamson netted the side's second goal in the 37th minute to give them a comfortable 2-0 win at halftime. Shanthan cleared all doubts as he came back to score in the 52nd and 72nd minutes to give Jaffna a memorable win.
Shanthan went on to win the Best Player of the Tournament award while his team mate T. Janusjan was named the Best Goalkeeper of the Tournament.
In the third-place play-off played prior to the final at the same venue, Negombo recorded a smashing 7-1 win against Gampola to emerge victorious after two hat-tricks from W.M. Danushka and M.A. Paneeth. Negombo led 4-0 at halftime.
Danushka scored in the 7th, 54th and 59th minutes while Praneeth was quick, scoring his three goals in the 23rd, 42nd and 43rd minutes. The final goal for the winners was scored by K. Avishka. Gampola would have received a complete thrashing if not for W.G.P. Madumal's solitary goal in the 80th minute.
In the semi-finals played on Saturday, Ambalangoda beat Negombo while Jaffna beat Gampola by similar margins -4-0. In the first semi-final W.A. Sandaruwan scored a hat-trick as Ambalangoda led 1-0 at halftime. Sandaruwan scored in the 34th, 52nd and 78th minutes while W.W. Avishka made his contribution in the 65th min- ute to secure an easy win.
In the second semi-final Jaffna faced a tough opposition in Gampola as they managed to score 1-0 before halftime but played effectively to secure a comfortable win in the end. For Jaffna P. Abinesh (40), R. Reamson (57), R. Shanthan (71) and J. Thillaikanthan (76) scored a goal each.
The tournament which was competed amongst all Football Leagues of the country was organised and conducted by the Football Federation of Sri Lanka.