Scenting victory in their second successive hockey final this year, the priests of Don Bosco had pumped the galleries with 500-odd students, who complied by thirsting for opponents St Stanislaus' head. The Bosco u-14 boys team acquiesced by posting a 3-2 win, to wrest the u-14 crown from the defending champions in the MSSA-Colgate Inter-school tournament today.

The losers had their moments. Just when a Bosco win seemed certain, Stanislaus, trailing 0-2, struck two goals off penalty corners in successive minutes to equalise. Even the hardest Bosco fan was convinced Stanislaus would pull off a victory. But Viren Pereira's fortuitous deflection in the penultimate minute saw Bosco home.

To be fair to Stanislaus, the boys played their hearts out but were unable to pierce the solid Boscodefence of Appachu Boverianda, Kamaldeep Vig and Elroy Afonso. The trio cut off entry into the cirle for the dangerous Jonathan Fernandes, while right out Rohan Thomas, adjudged most promising u-12 player last season, paid the penalty for delaying cracks at the goal on two occasions.

Viren Pereira put Bosco ahead in the 12th minute when he deflected a free hit by Julius D'Souza. The two other Bosco goals came in similar fashion. Nilesh Negi made it 2-0 four minutes into the second half, by pouncing on a goal-line melee off a short corner hit.

With ten minutes left, Stanislaus stormed back into the match when pusher Kyle Mascarenhas received a pass at the left post, in an improvised penalty conversion, and struck home. In the next minute, Jonathan Fernandes scored off a conventional corner execution. Just when the match seemed headed for extra time, Viren Pereira completed his brace by deflecting a rising ball, from waist height, into the goal.

Earlier, St Francis D'Assisi scored thrice in the last fiveminutes to defeat St Stanislaus B 5-0 in the match for third place.

Results

Final: Don Bosco, Matunga 3 (Viren Pereira 2, Nilesh Negi) bt Stanislaus A (Kyle Mascarenhas, Jonathan Fernandes); Third place: St Francis D'Assisi 5 (Rakesh Kharekar 2, Graden Murzello 2, Caiyn Cardoz) bt Stanislaus B 0.

St Theresa's prevail

St Theresa's, Bandra entered the second round of the u-14 boys MSSA-Colgate Inter-school hockey tournament for the Donnelly Cup by defeating Holy Family, Andheri 3-2 at Don Bosco School this morning.

Results (1st round): St Theresa's 3 (Jemojo D'Abreo 2, Nigel Concessio) bt Holy Family 2 (Avinash Kurian, Sharad Babu); St Joseph's, Malad 1 (Tejinder Singh) bt Dominic Savio, Andheri 0.

Talent Watch

Name: Julius D'Souza

School: Don Bosco, Matunga

Standard: VIII

Games played: Hockey, football

Position: Half-back last year, elevated to centre-forward this year.

Achievements: Top scorer with 17 goals (in six matches) of the u-14 inter-school hockeytournament. Represented Mumbai in the KD Babu Memorial at Lucknow last year.

Coaches: Sukhvinder Singh and BS Kutappa (Don Bosco). Mother Julie, a former Mumbai University centre-forward, also coaches him at home.

Favourite player: Dhyan Chand (Julius says he has watched black & white recorded matches of the legendary India forward).