Report by Pratap Pradhan; Bhubaneswar, Aug 8: The 29th MCL Cup Bhubaneswar Inter-School Football Tournament got off to an entertaining start with Buxi Jagabandhu English Medium School (BJEMS) notching up a 4-0 emphatic win over Prabhujee English Medium School (PEMS) here at Unit-VI Boys’ High School Ground today.
Rajiv Das was the architect of the BJEMS win, scoring a brace and doing the spadework for another goal. He was rightly adjudged the player of the match. Pratyush Singh drew blood early in the second minute, heading home a free kick by Rajiv. The latter scored his first goal off a free kick in the 20th minute to put BJEMS 2-0 up at the lemon break.
Somesh Mohanty made the score-line 3-0 with a stinging right-footer in the 33rd minute. Rajiv capped the victory two minutes later, converting a penalty kick with ease. BJEMS would have won the match by a much bigger margin but for the PEMS substitute goalkeeper, who saved at least three goals for his side. PEMS defence seemed a vulnerable unit and committed repeated mistakes in clearing the ball from their zone.
Organised by premier football club, Unit-VI Athletic Association, the oldest and most popular inter-school football tournament of the state was inaugurated by Angul-Sukinda Railway Limited Managing Director Dilip Kumar Samantray. Odisha’s junior international badminton player Rutaparna Panda, who is being groomed by Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad, was felicitated on the occasion.
Football Association of Odisha vice-president Bhakta Ballav Das, Bhubaneswar Athletic Association joint-secretary Naba Ranjan Patnaik, member Priyanath Mishra, local Corporator Pranab Kishore Swain, Unit-VI Athletic Association president Tapan Kumar Mohanty, vice-president Prafulla Kumar Mishra and secretary Dillip Kumar Das were present on the occasion.
The opening match was conducted by referee Pradipta Nayak, Chandrakanta Barik, Bulbul Bhoi and Saroj Maharana. There will be two matches tomorrow with St Joseph’s High School taking on new entrant Palasuni High School and DAV School, Pokhariput crossing sword against St Xavier’s High School, Kedargouri.
Comments are closed.