Panaji
Pope John Quepem upset favourites Rosary High Secondary School, Navelim 1-0 in the finals with Joycima Fernandes netting the match winner. Earlier in the round robin four-team league, Rosary had taken the top slot with 9 points and an all-win record. Pope John followed in the second spot with 6 points from two wins and one loss against Rosary.
St Xaviers, Moira and Our Lady of Piety HS, Collem were the other two teams in the competition. St Xavier’s Moira were awarded the Fair Play Trophy.
In the Veterans 5-a-side finals, Victor Lobo was the hero for Albert Developers scoring a brace to give them a 2-0 win over a fighting Calangute Veterans.
In the league phase Albert Developers topped group B with 5 points followed by Bardez Veterans with 4 points. In Group A, Calangute Veterans nudged ahead of Temptations Miramar by better goal difference after both teams had ended with 7 points.
In the first semi-finals, Albert Developers beat Temptations Miramar with a star goal from Bibiano and in the other semi-finals goalkeeper Dominic joined the attack and scored from the narrowest of angles to send his team into the finals ahead of Bardez Veterans. The Womens 5-a-side concluded in the morning and was attended by the Sporting Clube First team stars Cajetan Fernandes and Glan Martins along with chief coach Mathew Da Costa who gave away the prizes.
The Veterans 5-a-side was an unique event, bringing a host of players of yester years together with the likes of Domingos Cabral, Bibiano, Alex Alvares, Venancio Gonsalves, Victor Lobo, Caetan Pinho, Elvis Pereira, Lino Pereira, Fausto Lobo, Nelson Landez and Chandrakant Naik just to name a few, taking the field.
The prizes were distributed by chief guest Antonio Bothelo, veteran football administrator and former General Secretary of GFA who is most remembered as the man behind the famous Panvel Sports Club, along with Guests of Honour Natty Vaz, Co-Owner of Sporting Clube and Jovito Lopes Veteran Sports journalist and former long time member of the GFA Executive Committee.
