In a thrilling final played on the occasion of National Sports Day, Vasantrao Dempo Higher Secondary School, Cujira emerged the Subroto Mukherjee Under-17 football state champions defeating Damodar Higher Secondary School, Gudi-Paroda in the tie-breaker on Saturday evening.
The final was played at Atal Stadium, Bambolim under floodlights – for the first time in the history of school sports, as Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs hosted a school final under lights, making it a historic moment.
The scoreline at the end of Regulation time was 3-3. Vasantrao Dempo HSS, Cujira prevailed 4-2 in the tiebreaker and will represent Goa at the Nationals.
Bryson Dias put Damodar HSS in the lead with a superb long-range free-kick in the 6th minute and Armstrong Fernandes doubled the lead 3 minutes later. Vedansh Upadhyay and Ashish Kunkolkar scored a goal each to restore parity for Dempo HSS, who boasted of 5 Dempo SC Academy players in the team; in the first half.
In the second half, Atharva Rane gave Dempo the lead only to see Bryson Dias score another long-range goal from a freekick again to level the scoreline.
Over in the tie-breaker, Bhavesh Shirodkar, Atharva Rane, Musabh Shaikh and Crizman Correia converted their penalty-kicks for Dempo HSS. Damodar’s Alvaro Costa and Bryson Dias managed to score in the penalty shoot-out.
The medal and trophy presentation function was graced by Dr. Ajay R. Gaude – Director, Directorate of Sports & Youth Affairs; and Devendra Arlekar – Joint Director Accounts, Sports Authority of Goa, among others.
