It was a frustrating day for St Xavier's School, Sector 44, players. Despite good work by them, they ended up as losers via sudden death to Delhi Public School, Sector 40, by a margin of 4-3 in a semi-final match of the Under-19 category in the Annual St Xavier's Six-A-Side Football Championship being played at the St Xavier's School, Sector 44, on Wednesday.

Playing at their home-ground, St Xavier's took the lead through Austin in the 5th minute of the match. However, the lead did not last long as Niranjan restored parity three minutes later for DPS-40. Thereafter, both teams had a couple of chances to swell the account but they squandered the chances that came their way.

With a view to resolving the deadlock, the tie-breaker rule was applied. However, the score remained locked at 1-1 even after that. Akshit and Parmoth converted their penalties for St Xavier's, while Austin's penalty was blocked by DPS goalkeeper Gurdit Singh. For DPS-40, Himanshu and Rubal converted their spot kicks. Niranjan muffed his penalty. In the sudden death session, DPS clinched the issue in their favour through Shubham. St Xavier's were denied victory by DPS keeper Gurdit who blocked Ninti's shot.

Meanwhile, Vivek Gulati scored a brace to help Shishu Niketan outplay Delhi Public School, Pinjore, 5-0 to enter the finals. Vivek opened the account for team in the first minute of the match. He was on target again five minutes later to double the lead. Then Sandesh's strike in the 10th minute made the scoreline 3-0. Devinder (25 th ) and Shubham (29 th ) contributed one goal each to record a comfortable win over their opponents.

... contd.