MAPUSA: Football Club de Bardez ease past Dempo Sports Club Juniors 3-0 in the 1st AWES Cup group C match organised by Goa Football Association and Dempo Sports Club played at Duler Stadium, here on Sunday.
Bardez Coach Armando Colaco brought in keeper Santosh Pujar who made his debut for the senior side. While he also introduced newly signed Caitano Viegas and Inacio Colaco in the starting XI. At the other end, Dempo Jrs Head Coach Anthony De Souza fielded nine U-17 players in starting XI while he also gave chance to Gawin Pinto, Floyd Pereira and Edwin Viegas who had previously played for Dempo in the I-League U-18.
It took just two minutes for the Juniors to break the Bardez defence line as Larryl Mascarenhas found Stendly Fernandes in the box with a fine through pass but Bardez defender Caitano was on-time to clear it off for a corner.
Stendly had another chance to take his side on an early lead after receiving a perfect pass from the winger Boris De Melo but the latter saw his shot missed the target by few inches.
Armando’s men replied the Juniors with some swift, but keeper Gawin stood tall in both the occasion to keep his side safe. First, he brilliantly collected Shubham Rao Desai’s shot from the point blank range. Later, he denied Kirtikesh Gadekar’s lethal volley from going in with a diving effort to his left.
Finally after a nail biting contest between the two teams in the first few minutes, Bardez drew the first blood through defensive midfielder Micky Vaz’s long ranger which finished in the back of the nylons making it 1-0 for the Bardez.
A few minutes later, Micky had another chance to double Bardez’s lead when his another fierce shot was entering the goal but this time keeper Gawin stretched to his limit to push it for a corner.
In the last few minutes before the halftime whistle, Dempo’s Stendly was constantly penetrating Bardez defence, however, he could not manage to get back something fruitful from any of his move and the first half ended with Bardez leading by a goal.
On changing over, Bardez’s Kirtikesh made it 2-0 with a brilliant finish from inside the after getting hold of the ball from a short pass by Micky. Before these, Jessel Carneiro should have scored from the close but his weedy shot was easily collected by the keeper Gawin, off Micky’s curling cross.
A minute later, Micky himself saw his half-volley from the edge of the box missed the target by a whisker.
At the hour mark, Bardez defender Stainly D’Silva handled the ball in the box to give away the spot kick to the Dempo Jrs but keeper Pujar brilliantly pushed away Edwin’s penalty kick.
Dempo Juniors suffered another blow when they were reduced to ten men when Edwin was shown his second yellow card and sent off for the harsh tackle on Bardez’s Shubham.
Taking advantage of a man short, Bardez scored their third when Lenston Afonso headed in from the hand shaking distance off substitute Floyd Fernandes’ perfect free-kick, 3-0.
