Hosts St Andrews win school football crown

St Andrews School were crowned champions at the 11th Dr John de Souza interschool football tournament in thrilling fashion, defeating St Patrick’s High School in a charged final.

The hosts played with aggressive intent right from the starting whistle.

Frequent forays into the opposition half coupled with steadfast defence whittled away at the St Patrick’s boys’ confidence.

It wasn’t long before St Andrews took the lead. In the 11th minute, a crafty feint handed possession to Jeevan, who weaved his way through the patchwork defence and fired the ball into the back of the net.

Buoyed by this, St Andrews turned the screws on St Patrick’s with a dazzling display of quickfire passing.

The hosts doubled their lead in

Jeevan scored twice while Abhay and Sai Nikhil struck once as St Andrews School thrashed St Patrick’s High School 4-1 to win the 11th Dr John de Souza inter-school football tournament played in Secunderabad

the 17th minute through Abhay, who broke free of the pack at the halfway line and dribbled the ball towards the goal at breakneck speed. He found the stunned St Patrick’s goalkeeper on the wrong foot, neatly tapping the ball into the far corner.

A little before the half-time interval, St Patrick’s pulled one back after a rare defensive lapse from St Andrews. However, that was to be the only time St Patrick’s got the ball into the hosts’ penalty box.

Soon after resumption, Jeevan was in the thick of the action again, scoring this time through a wonderful set-piece. A desperate move by St Patrick’s awarded a free kick to the hosts, who took full advantage of the situation to take the score to 3-1.

The runners-up managed to repel the next few attacks from St Andrews but a few minutes from time, Sai Nikhil scored an accurate long-ranger and effectively sealed the match in his side’s favour.

Meanwhile, in the play-off for the third spot, Rohith scored the only goal as Don Bosco High School beat St Michael’s School.