St Andrew’s College (Bandra) emerged victorious in the District Sports Office (DSO) inter-district U-19 girls final, defeating St Xavier’s College (Navi Mumbai) by a narrow 1-0 margin at the Mumbai Hockey Association Ltd (Churchgate) turf on Tuesday.
The U-17 title was won by State Bank Officers Association Public School (Nerul) while the U-14 crown was won by New Bombay City CBSE School (Ghansoli), making the St Andrew’s girls the only Mumbai team to emerge victorious across the three competitions.
U-17 DSO champions: State Bank Officers Assn Public School (Nerul)
Goalless first-half
In the U-19 final, both teams put on a strong defensive display in the first-half, which ended goalless. However, after the break, St Andrew’s coach, Priya Dubey, made a decisive tactical change — she shifted her team’s formation from 3-4-3 to 4-4-2.
This additional forward injected new energy into the attack and the team began to create more openings upfront. The switch paid off in the 18th minute when St Andrew’s striker, Anvishka Parab, capitalised on a perfectly timed pass from Taleesha Vaz, who was stationed on the right flank, to execute an easy tap-in into the bottom left corner of the goal, securing victory for the Bandra outfit.
U-14 DSO champions: New Bombay City CBSE School (Ghansoli)
‘Tactical change worked’
“I’m really happy with our performance. The change in formation turned out well. We found it difficult to find the target earlier as we were being closely marked in the first-half. But by adding strikers inside the box in the second-half, we confused them,” s coach, Dubey,
told mid-day.
Meanwhile, in the U-17 girls final, Riva Ghale netted a hat-trick as State Bank Officers Association Public School (Nerul) beat St Joseph’s High School CBSE (Panvel) 5-0. Akshina Poyarekar and Advita Kamble also netted a goal each to seal victory for the Nerul school.
In the U-14 girls final, New Bombay City CBSE School (Ghansoli) got the better of Duruelo Convent School (Bandra) 3-2 via the tie-breaker after the match finished goalless in regulation time. In the shoot-out, Kritika Singh, Shreya Patil and Sonakshi Nandikole converted for the Ghansoli outfit while only Anushka Salvi and Farheen Shaikh managed to score for Duruelo.