Maris Stella produced a brilliant display of football as they came back from two goals down to rout rivals S.Mary’s College 6-2 in their group B match of the Kotmale Chox U19 Championship.
Maris Stella rout S.Mary’s
The home fans were in for a shock in the opening minutes as S.Mary’s pounced on every opportunity on a wet ground as rain pelted down throughout the match. The visitors opened the scoring in the 11th minute through Sumedha Fernando and continued to dominate Maris Stella. S.Mary’s doubled their lead 10 minutes later when Sri Lanka schools’ poolist Shamika Fernando stroked a brilliant finish to stun the Maristonians.
Maris Stella with a host of Sri Lanka schools’ players bounced back immediately to take the initiative and started to dictate terms. Kasun Sanjeewa reduced the visitors lead in half in the 25th minute and four minutes before the half time Suraj Peiris equalized which gave the momentum to Maris Stella heading into half time.
After the break with the momentum in hand Maris Stella played their free flowing game which S.Mary’s players found it hard to contain. The visitors lost their rhythm and concentration and the Maristonians took full advantage of it. Maris Stella added another attacking midfielder from the beginning of the second half which paved way for Ashen Jeewantha to score in the 49th minute.
Jeewantha added his second in the 63rd minute. By now S.Mary’s had given up all hope and the hosts added two more goals from Samitha Subhashana to complete a memorable comeback.
Overseas School too good for Ananda
On the back of a superb 2-2 draw against Nalanda two days prior, Overseas produced another stellar performance this time against Nalanda’s arch rivals Ananda as they comfortably defeated them 4-0 at Overseas’ grounds.
The match started in good pace with both teams trying to stamp their mark but it was the hosts in the 15th minute when Devin Kabey managed to net for OSC to take an early lead in the game and before half time Overseas added another through an own goal to make it 2-0 at lemons.
After the break it was OSC again who added another through a neat pass collected and sent to the goal by Sho Kubota who had a good game to make it 3-0. Kubota scored against both Ananda and Nalanda and at the last stages of the game Jung Soo Keown found the net to seal the victory 4-0.
OSC has now collected 4 points out of 2 games and they have to now play big guns in school football De Mazenod College, Kandana and St Benadict’s College, Kotahena to secure a birth in the final 8 of the tournament.
