HASC fly high again

Students Union trounce S Blues 7-2 in A Division

In a match played at walking pace, a brace from substitute Satish Kumar in the 66th and 72nd minutes, along with a goal each from Malemngamba Meitei (29th), Rajendra Prasad (45th) and A Hamza (69th), helped the Aircraftmen to their fourth straight victory. ISRO got their consolation goal, courtesy Thamodaran, in the 64th.

The match began with ISRO almost scoring the opener in the fifth minute. A mistake from HASC defender Jai Kumar let in John Paul free on goal with just goalkeeper P Pramod to beat. Pramod, though, reacted fastest and came out to snuff out the danger, but in the process injured himself and was replaced by reserve goalkeeper Rintu Mallick.

As the first half wore on, HASC slowly got into the game and found the first goal through Meitei,  who side-footed a low cross from Hamza down the left.

Goal number two came in first-half stoppage time. Meitei turned creator, finding a perfect cross for Rajendra Prasad to head home from four yards out. Those two goals seemed to settle HASC down, but after an incident-free first fifteen minutes of the second half, ISRO pulled one back. Former HASC player Thamodaran struck a sweet shot into the bottom right corner from 23 yards out after the ball had fallen to him off a corner.

HASC, however, immediately hit back with Hamza crossing from the right to Satish, who had time to control the ball and lash it into the roof of the net. Hamza then got on to the scoresheet when he met a Rajendra Prasad pass with his head from six yards out.

Satish made it 5-1 with a powerful header but missed his hat-trick after goalkeeper Avijith Dey made a smart save off the substitute’s looping header in the final moments.

Other result: ‘A’ Division: Students Union: 7 (Shamanth 7th, John 13th, 37th, Philips 31st, 53rd, 73rd, Abubakar 80th) bt Southern Blues: 2 (Karthick 25th, Sridar 45th).