St Joseph's emerge champs
SJCC edge past New Horizon via tie-breaker in summit clash
St Joseph’s College of Commerce captured the title in the KSFA-Rotary Bangalore Indiranagar title at the Bangalore Football stadium here on Friday.
The SJCC overcame a defensive New Horizon College of Engineering 3-2 in the penalty shoot-out after both teams ended the regulation time goalless. At 3-2 in the tie-breaker, needing to score to stay in the match, NHCE’s Vineeth hit the fifth spot kick over the cross piece to hand SJCC the title.
In the shootout, Bharath, Ericson, Mervyn were on target for SJCC while Sudendra’s drive hit the post. Indira Rajan and Sanjay found the back of the net for NHCE. However, Nithin’s kick was saved by St Joseph goalie Pritham.
Earlier, egged on by their college mates Josephites, who will be playing in the BDFA’s ‘A’ Division league next season, played good football but failed to find the net. NHCE, on the other hand, stood rock solid in the defence.
Joseph’s made early in roads with their forwards showing great skills. Mervyn and Ericson combined nicely to put pressure on rival defence. Infact, Josephites could have gone ahead but they wasted a penalty in the 15th minute. SJCC was awarded a penalty after NHCE’s Sanjay brought down Uma Shankar inside the penalty area. Paul, who took the penalty struck it straight to NHCE’s goalkeeper Nischal Naidu. With the score at 0-0, both the teams looked rather satisfied with their effort at half-time. Returning from the break, Joseph’s applied some pressure in form of Ericson and Paul but their intensity waned with time. NHCE held to playing solid defence and the match went to shootout.
Results: Final: St Joseph’s College of Commerce bt New Horizon College of Engineering 3-2. Via tie-breaker. FT: 0-0
Individual awards: Player of the tournament: Uma Shankar (St Joseph’s). Best forward: Karthik (New Horizon). Best defender: R Bharath (St Joseph’s). Best mid-fielder: Ericson (St Joseph’s). Best goalkeeper: Manju (Baldwin).
