VPA,BEG in Aga Khan final

Vikram Pillay Academy and Bombay Engineers Group entered the finals of the All-India Aga Khan Hockey Tournament with victories over their respective opponents at the PCMC Polygrass Ground yesterday.

VPA blanked out Railway Police 2-0,with Ashish Bhosale opening the scoring in the 19th minute,followed by a penalty-corner conversion from Rahul Deokar in the 42nd. Yuvraj Walmiki was instrumental in both goals,providing the crucial pass to his teammates.

They will be joined in todays final by BEG,who secured a convincing 6-0 victory over the Pune City Police thanks to a brace from Niranjan Ekka. Ekka opened the scoring for BEG in the 18th minute,then scored another in the 33rd. This inspired his teammates,and Hirojit Singh soon made it 3-0 in the army team’s favour,finding the net in the 34th minute. This was followed by goals from Armaan Minz and Abung Singh in the 38th and 49th minute respectively,before Ajay Kujur capped off the victory with a 55th-minute goal.

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In the Junior division of the tournament,SNBP school were crowned Under-14 champions,edging out NSB Military School 1-0 in the final. Prathamesh Shinde scored the crucial goal off a pass from Rohan Burse in the second minute of the match,and it was enough to see SNBP through as they held on for the title.

NSB got their revenge,however,beating the same opponents 3-1 in the Under-16 Final. They took an early lead in the 9th minute through Malhar Ghume,with Siddharth Paigude providing the assist. SNBP did manage to equalise through Sachin Lakshetty,who scored in the 21st. However,Ghume set up his teammate Pratik Nazulkar,who smashed the ball past the SNBP goalkeeper to give NSB a 2-1 lead. Paigude also added his name to the scoresheet,slotting the ball home in the 27th minute to complete the victory for his team

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