In a rematch of last year's final, defender Carl Mascarenhas and right-out Rohan Thomas scored for the winners in the first half, while Graden Murzello's solo in the penultimate minute narrowed the margin for Assisi.

Hosts Don Bosco were 7-0 winners in the other semi-final against Stanislaus B, comprising u-12 players carrying learner's licences. The losers should feel heartened by their 2-0 win over traditional rivals St Andrew's in the quarter-finals.

Assisi and Stanislaus had split the two inter-school u-14 titles last year, the Donnelly Cup going to Assisi due to the good work done by the Kharekar brothers Rajesh and Rakesh. With Rajesh moving on to the u-16 team, the mantle of centre-half fell on Rakesh, right-out last year.Rakesh was uncomfortable in the new position, often playing too deep in his own half to instrument an attack. Coach Jaswant Singh said, ``We had no other option. Unfortunately, Rakesh did not open out, was too frightened.'' Naturally, the switch also put a crimp in Assisi's offence.

The first goal came in the 13th minute, through a penalty stroke for an illegal check. Carl Mascarenhas made no mistake. Four minutes later, left half Vikram Noronha, who impressed with his ball control, sent a through ball to Jonathan Fernandes at the top of the circle. The keen-eyed Jonathan was wrong-footed, but managed a reverse off balance to Rohan Thomas, who gleefully deflected in.

Graden Murzello should have scored for Assisi in the 22nd minute. He shot wide of a yawning goalpost from less than ten feet away ! Graden made amends in the 49th minute, when he dribbled 25 yards past two defenders and scored.Earlier, Julius D'Souza's hat-trick (1st, 2nd, 27th) laid the foundation for Bosco's win. Julius is the leadingscorer of the tournament, with 17 goals from five matches.

Results (semis): Don Bosco, Matunga 7 (Julius D'Souza 3, Andre Colaco 2, Afroz Choudhary, Elroy Afonso) bt Stanislaus B 0; Stanislaus A 2 (Rohan Thomas, Carl Mascarenhas) bt Assisi 1 (Graden Murzello).

St Joseph's in semis

St Joseph's, Vikhroli and St Francis Xavier's, Kanjurmarg entered the semi-final of the girls u-14 MSSA-Colgate inter-school hockey tournament at St Stanislaus' School today. While the Kanjurmarg team prevailed 3-2 over Durello Convent, St Joseph thumped Holy Family, Chembur 4-1.

Results (QF play-off): St Francis Xavier's 3 (Shweta Sugdhare, Pallavi Bhillare, Harshada Labde) bt Durello Convent 2 (Chriselle Pereira 2); St Joseph's, Vikhroli 4 (Reena Salian 2, Hazel Correa, Alisha Marques) bt Holy Family 1 (Khyati Solanki).

Dolours score

A brace by Allwyn Lasrado and some strong defence under the bar by Melwyn Naronha saw Dolour's United beat Brother's Sports Club, 2-0, in a Division IV, pool Bmatch of the BHA League at Khalsa College today.

Other results: Bombay Republicans 7 (Vivek Gupta 3, Jayesh Jadhav, Baptista D'Souza, Mahesh Lokhande, Bittu Shigroha) bt Khalsa Gymkhana C 1 (Shahnawaz Choudhary).