TEAM HERALD

sports@herald-goa.com

CALANGUTE: Penha de France beat Sangolda Lightning 6-5 via the tie-breaker to emerge champions of 18^th Nerul Panchayat Cup inter-village football tournament organized by Nerul Sports Club at Nerul ground, Saturday.

The players of Penha de France receiving the winner’s  trophy from Shrinivas Dempo, president of Goa Football  Association at Nerul ground, Saturday.

In the pulsating final, where the play was mostly restricted to the midfield, the teams came close to scoring on a couple of occasions but their forwards were unable to get past the last line of defence and settled for a goalless draw. The goalkeepers Naved Almeida of Penha and Washinton Pereira of Sangolda excelled under the bar.

With the teams failing to score even once during regulation time, the winners were decided on penalties. Penha de Franca kept their cool to romp home victorious. Seby Rodrigues, Melvyn Rodrigues, Dilip Rodrigues, Pandurang Halarnkar, Raju Padoshi and Naved Almeida scored for Penha while Washington Pereira, Yogesh Mayekar, Llyod Mascarenhas, Alvares and Prashant Gaonkar were on target for Sangolda.

Penha pocketed Rs 25,000 while Sangolda Lightning had to be content with Rs 20,000 besides the trophies.

Other individual prizes: First scorer of the final: Seby Rodrigues (Penha). Best defender: Fraser Picardo (Penha). Best forward: Dilip Rodrigues (Penha). Best goalkeeper: Washington Pereira (Sangolda). Player of the tournament: Sachin Chopdekar. Upcoming player: Rohit Naik. Player of the year: Sidharth Shirodker.

Shrinivas Dempo, president of Goa Football Association was the chief guest and gave away the trophies in the presence of Suraj Morajkar, Pradeep Dhuri, Kalidas Pednekar and others.

Earlier, the guests were introduced to the teams and match officials by Prakash Kalangutkar, president of Nerul SC, Sudesh Govekar, vice-president, Bhanudas Madgaonkar, secretary and Rohidas Panjikar.