Teerth takes Shanti Asiatic past MK Higher Secondary School

AHMEDABAD: Makeshift Shanti Asiatic School (SAS) goalkeeper Teerth Patel pulled off two spectacular saves to beat MK Higher Secondary School (MKHS) 5-4 in the sudden death penalty and make it to the pre-quarterfinal of The Times of India T20 School Soccer tournament currently underway in Ahmedabad.
Vishvesh Patel of MK missed his penalty and also the first shot in the sudden death to finish second best in a battle of equals.Harsh, Arjun, Priyanshu, Teerth and Yash scored for SAS while Akram, Azhar, Shreyan and Riyaz scored for MKHS.
Both debutants in this tournament, tried their best to outscore the other and that dished out an exciting encounter where the pendulum swung from one end to the other in quick succession.
Priyanshu Pandey of SAS started with a valiant attempt on the run of play in the very first minute, the ball went just over the bar. Another free kick by SAS winger Teerth just missed the target by few inches.
Then came MK's turn. A curling free kick by Riyaz Parmar, beat the goalkeeper but no takers at the far post. Within minutes Riyaz was again in the picture this time sending a through ball for Anwar Dawva who had a good run down the right flank and even succeeded in charging in but couldn't control his shot.
Soon SAS missed two good scoring opportunities. The first one came when Arjun Shah sent a sweet cross for Priyanshu, but he couldn't connect. The second one came when Yash Agarwal had a shy at goal with a long ranger, hit the left bar and came down, the goal line technology would definitely have come in to play.
There were plenty of similar exchanges all through the second half but none could break the deadlock forcing the penalty shoot-out.