Royal College’s custodian Mustaq Ramzi much unlike himself allowed a routine save burst through his hand and into the goal which ultimately proved too much for Royal to recover from as they were beaten 4-1 by De Mazenod College in the quarter final of the Kotmale Chox Schools U19 Football Tournament.
It was a game riddled with goalkeeping errors by both keepers but it was the lads from Kandana who took full advantage of those errors to run rampant in the final minutes of the game. Coming into the game De Mazenod was in good form topping their group, while the ever improving Royal outfit was minus their inspirational captain Haritha Gajanayaka who suffered a hamstring injury but was fit enough to be on the bench.
The first blunder by a keeper was by De Mazenod’s No.1 Sarindu Nimesh who over ran deep free kick into the box only managing to get a finger on it and Royal’s Naveen Jout was on hand to tap the ball into the net from close range to give the lead in the 11th minute.
De Mazenod equalized in the 27th minute through Pasindu Gunasekara when he was at the end of a rebound effort which Mustaq could only half stop it and the ball rolled over the line.
With the game at full flow and both sides giving their all, it looked as if there would be no more goals with some resolute defending by both sides. However Royal fans would not have expected what happened in the 65th minute. De Mazenod’s Ranju Silva ran down the left flank past one defender and took a shot which lacked real power but to the utter shock of the Royal fans Mustaq let the ball burst through his hand and could not recover the ball in time.
With quarter of an hour left Royal brought in Haritha with his left leg heavily strapped to provide some sort of inspiration to the side. However much Haritha tried his injury was too much and it stifled him of his natural dynamic game.
With time running out the Reid Avenue boys committed more players forward in the dying stages of the game in search of an equalizer which left vast spaces for De Mazenod to counter attack which saw Ranju Silva in a sweeping move down the left leaving two defenders in his wake to score the third goal at the start of injury time to put the game beyond doubt.
De Mazenod was awarded a free kick deep into injury time and Pasindu’s delivery was parried by Mustaq as far as Ranju Silva who calmly slotted it past the keeper with the final kick of the game. It was a bad day at the office for Mustaq Ramzi who should have done better with the first goal and saved the second one with ease.
In the early stages however it was Royal who the more positive side even without Haritha with Naveen Jout, Mohomed Sashni and Mohomed Sajid attacking with intent and Jout went close with a left footed effort just past the upright before he scored the opener. Chathura Avishka who led Royal had a commanding presence at the heart of the Royal defense with his hard tackling and composed play.
As the game went on the early nerves of the De Mazenod players settled and their started to control the game with Pasindu Gunasekara and Ranju Silva giving them the vision and pace while Nayan De Mel had a couple of moment of brilliance but couldn’t convert them.
Maris Stella stroll past S.Benedict’s College
A brace by Dilip Peiris saw Maris Stella defeat S.Benedict’s College 3-0 in a quarter final of the Kotmale Chox U19 football tournament.
Maris Stella boasting four Sri Lanka youth players were too much to handle for the Kotahena outfit. The match played at St. Benedict’s Grounds, Kotahena and the Maristonians who have been the team posing threats to all teams with their solid game plan had not much resistance from the Kotahena boys. Dilip Pieris opened scoring in the 15th minute of the game with a well combined attacking move and it was followed by Jeewantha Fernando who made no mistakes in netting a solo in the penalty box through the gap.
Maris Stella led 2-0 at half time. Bens came up with an attacking style of play in the second half but their forwards lacked direction and were not a threat to the Mari Stella defense line. Dilip Pieris scored the 3rd in the 60th minute sealing the victory for them and booking a place in the semifinals.
