Holy Family in final

Holy Family’s Keegan Fernandes got his best ever birthday present as he led his school to victory against Don Bosco ‘B’, Matunga to enter the final in the under-16 category (Division III) of the MSSA inter-school tournament at Azad Maidan on Wednesday.

Captaining his school for the first time in the tournament, Keegan was ecstatic to have beat Bosco 2-0.

The game was well-balanced after a goalless first half. Holy Family (Andheri) got their first breakthrough when their substitute Deviprasad Poojari took a shot from the left flank of the goalpost and the ball deflected off Bosco’ defender and found the back of the net. The Andheri school were lucky on their second goal.

A mis-judgement by Bosco’s defenders let the ball slip in to the proximity of the goal and Kenneth Fernandes made no mistake as he chipped in the ball with perfection to add another goal to his school’s account.

Thereafter, Holy Family defended well and did not let the Matunga boys anywhere near their goalpost. They won the game 2-0. Holy Family had finished at the bottom two last season and were thereby relegated to the third division. With the win against Bosco in the semifinal, they have been promoted to the second division again.

Holy Family’s coach Denis Coutinho said he was proud of his boys.

“I told them not to get intimidated by the name of ‘Bosco’ and put on their best show on the field. I made a few changes in the players’ position and it worked well. The team’s strong defence helped us win today’s game,” he added. Holy Family will meet St Xavier’s, Borivli in the final.