A fine performance by Visakha Vidyalaya saw them beat Bishops College convincingly in the inaugural under 19 encounter between the two schools for the Jeremias Dias Challenge Trophy.
The two schools have met six times in the past for under 15 age group matches, but this was the first time in the history of the encounter that a match was played between the under 19 teams. As such, there was a lot of pride on the line to be the first team to win the new trophy. The encounter was also spiced up by events that happened in the recently held national schools tournament, where Visakha Vidyalaya gave Bishops College a walkover in the finals, citing poor refereeing.
Visakha Vidyalaya got the game off to a strong start, with captain Aneka Abeywickrama being unlucky to have a great long range shot come off the post. Visakha soon managed to draw first blood however, taking advantage of an exclusion on a Bishopian player with Limashi Kosgodage beating a poor effort by the Bishopian goal keeper to score the first goal of the game. She followed up that goal with another stunning shot from long range giving the Visakhians a two goal lead and strong momentum.
Bishops seemed to have not turned up at the start of the game, unable to consistently pressure the Visakhian defence. Their main playmaker was expected to be the skipper Aneesah Fowzie, but the Visakhians seemed determined to not give her any space, doubling up on her often to prevent her from getting a shot away. The shots that they did manage to get off were well saved by Maneka Dedigamuwa who was in goal, alternating on a quarter by quarter basis with Samaakhya Gajanayake. The Bishopians themselves seemed keen on double teaming the Viskhian captain Aneka, but in doing so left Limashi open to score without any defensive pressure.
The second quarter showed a lot of offensive intent shown by both sides, with Visakha having a couple of shots blocked by the keeper. It was Bishops that struck back however, through a brilliant goal by the captain. Aneesah Fowzie who had racked up a number of unsuccessful conventional shots, pulled of a stunning back handed shot, putting the ball in the net before the Visakhian keeper even had time to move. It was a piece of individual brilliance that should have given the Bishopians a much needed boost, but they were unable to break down a relentless Visakhian defence and it was Visakha Vidyalaya once again that put the points on the board, counter attacking after yet another offensive foray by the Bishopians broke down, before scoring through Shaleena Peiris leaving the score at 3-1 at half time.
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The Bishopians were able to get a number of shots of but were thwarted by both Maneka and Samaakhya in goal for the Visakhians, as they pulled off a number of good saves. On the other end of the pitch, the Bishopian goalie Minuri de Silva had to deal with a barrage of shots coming in from the Visakhians, and did well, picking up her game after the first half, making a number of good saves. The indiscipline in the Bishopians play cost them once again however with Visakha once again breaking on the counter attack, scoring through Akshana Perera and putting the Visakhians in a commanding 4-1 lead. Limashi Kosgodage then scored yet another great long range shot during an exclusion play, completing her hat trick and bringing the score up to 5-1 and taking the wind out of the Bishopians’ sails.
It was captain Aneka Abeywickrama that scored the sixth goal for Visakha, firing in a great shotafter some appalling defensive play by the opposition. With the scoreline reading 6-1 and the game practically decided, the Visakhians could afford to ease up on the barrage of goals they had been scoring while it was left to the Bishopians to scramble and salvage as much of their pride as they could. Their link up play was quite poor, with some bad passing breaking down a number of promising plays. They finally managed to get the ball to their captain Aneesah, who scored her second goal of the game before the crowd was treated to an amazing solo effort by Ashanti Sumanapala who took the ball up the length of the entire pool by herself before beating the goalkeeper with a great finish. Her efforts pulled the score back to 6-3, giving the Bishopians a glimmer of hope. That hope seemed to be false as Bishops’s was not at all up to par in their tactical decision making and passing, turning the ball over time and time again due to careless play. At the other end of the pool their goalkeeper was pulling of crunch save after the other, in a desperate attempt to not let the Visakhians extend their lead, but it didn’t seem that the Bishopians had the quality in front of goal to make a comeback.
They finally managed to pull a goal back with Aneesah Fowzie pulling off another excellent backhanded shot, completing her own hat trick and bringing the deficit up to two. It was too little too late however, with Aneka hammering in the final nail in the coffin scoring the seventh goal for Visakha, leaving the score line at full time 7- 4 in favour of a Visakhian outfit that thoroughly outplayed their opponents in every department.
