The wooden cage at the Mahindra Mumbai Hockey Association (MHA) stadium was handed a serious pounding on Saturday as it was goals galore on the opening day of the 2nd Shri Govind Perumal Memorial Hockey Tournament organized by the Thane District Hockey Association. If Fr Agnel High School from Vashi felt a little hard done by after their 7-0 thrashing at the hands of Maharashtra Military High School from Murbad; it proved to be a nightmare opener for St Lawrence High School who made the long trip from Ambernath to Churchgate.

All they received for their efforts was an 11-0 humiliation, with Swapnil Shinde scoring six of the goals himself for DAV High School from Nerul. Nikhil Joshi, S Jadhav, R Sharma, A Avadh and A Panchal added a goal each as DAV’s goal tally entered double-figures and the St Lawrence heads sunk lower and lower.

Meanwhile, it was Aniket Bose and Mithilesh who shared the dirty-work for the Military School with three goals each, while A Rai chipped in with one to seal the deal for his school. The goal-fest continued in the two-day tournament for under-16 boys, which pits 10 top school teams from Thane, Airoli, Ambernath and Nerul, with DAV High School from Airoli thrashing St Augustine High School from Nerul 4-0.