St George set up final date with HTA
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, September 09 2016: St George stormed into the final of the Araang inter-school cup despatching St John Bosco by 3 goals to nil in the first semi final played today at TNL Ground.

The victory margin of 3-0 was convincing but it did not really reflect the competitiveness of the match as St John Bosco put up a valiant fight but their defensive approach to the game proved to be their undoing.

From the first whistle, the boys from St George played an open and flowing game while St John Bosco relied on tight marking.

Despite the repeated offensives, the boys from St John Bosco held firm and did not give any space to their rivals, cutting them off at crucial moments.

The attacking play however yielded fruits when the ball went to Ninglum Shangh who neatly controlled the ball and managed to side step a couple of defenders and disturb the net with a rasping shot that caught the goalkeeper of St John Bosco hands down.

Spurred by the goal, St George put more men in the attack and began to find cracks in the defence line of the rival team.

The wet and slushy ground, thanks to the heavy rain that has been lashing Ukhrul in the last couple of days, not withstanding, the match saw some precise passes amongst the players.

St George began to rely more on their flanks and in the 60+2 minute the ball was floated just in front of the penalty box where Honching was lurking nearby.

Making no mistake with the ball, Honching let loose a rasping shot that beat the goalkeeper of St John Bosco.

The match ended with St George registering a convincing 3-0 win to enter the final.

The second semi-final match between Shirui HS and Higher Temzen Academy at Bakshi mini stadium saw two equally matched teams battling it out for ball possession and go one up.

Temzen Academy managed to break the deadlock in the 15th minute when Wungpam Kasomwoshi managed to catch a couple of defenders of the Shirui School on their wrong foot and managed to put the ball into the far end of the net.

Stung by the goal, the boys from Shirui played with a purpose and started finding gaps in the defence line of the rival team.

Off such a move, Thuimung received a defence splitting pass and after getting the better of a couple of defenders managed to slot home the ball in the 27th minute.

The match ended with neither team able to break the deadlock and the tie breaker had to be resorted to.

In the tie break, Higher Temzen Academy managed to find the net four times while Shirui HS could score only once.

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