JOIN USTrouble mars Joseph's triumph
After their Juniors put on a good show to defeat St Germain High School 1-0 in the final, it was upto the Seniors to prove their prowess and they did just that, in spades, with a memorable 5-0 win over Bishop Cotton Boys’ School.
The tournament though didn’t have a happy ending as the very crowd that had infused life into the stadium with loud chants, accompanied by drums and trumpets, lost control and turned violent.
And even though the situation was brought under control later on, the damage was done.
Following a sprightly start in the Junior final, St Germains looked well on their way to taking the lead but a goal in the third minute from St Joseph’s Kutappa pegged them back.
The 1-0 scoreline remained untouched right through the remaining 57 minutes for St Joseph’s to be crowned the champions among the Juniors.
As the Junior boys walked off the field, their Seniors came on with the hope of mirroring the younger team’s performance, but instead they outdid them by quite a margin.
With Vaibhav Belliappa leading the way with brilliant passes and runs down the centre, St Joseph’s did well to dominate, and as was the case in the Junior match, they too scored in the 3rd minute, Vijay Ravi Melvin finding the board off a penalty corner.
As the Cottonians ran about with no sense of purpose, the Josephites managed to stitch some good plays and as a result they extended their advantage to 2-0 when Samrith Nanjappa directed a shot from Belliappa to the top right corner of the goal.
To rub salt into the wounds of the Bishop Cotton team, Suraj K Tomy in the 33rd minute, Shashank CN in the 47th minute and Belliappa two minutes after that, struck a goal each to complete the formalities for the winning side.