MAPUSA: Marcus Mascarenhas’ strike enabled Sporting Clube de Goa to overcome Calangute Association by a solitary goal in the fifth round match of the Goa Professional League organised by GFA, at Poriat ground, on Friday.
With Friday’s win, Sporting moved to nine points while Calangute have four points after the fifth round of matches.
The all-important match winning goal for Sporting was scored by Marcus Mascarenhas in the 45th minute.
Calangute were unlucky to be on the losing side even after dominating most of the match and having better opportunities then their opponents should have found the net through Franky Oliveira who missed the target twice in quick succession in the sixth and ninth minute of play.
Sporting who were slow to get out of their blocks had their first attempt in the 25th minute but the keeper Savio Paes brilliantly tipped Guarav Vaigankar’s long range strike over the post for a corner.
Clive Miranda was unfortunate to see his well timed header off a corner-kick taken by Guarav miss the target narrowly for Sporting five minutes later.
Sporting keeper Gurpeet Singh brought up a smart diving stop a minute before half time to deny U-20 player Diptesh Naik who after getting hold of a wonderful weighted pass by Franky busted into the penalty area and unleashed a fierce grounder.
In a swift counter attack, Gaurav who was a constant menace saw his well struck shot being blocked by Calangute keeper Savio Paes and the ball rolled to Marcus Mascarenhas who without any hesitation tapped the ball into the goal to give his side the lead.
On crossing over, Marcus almost scored his second goal for Sporting but was denied by the alertness of keeper Savio Paes in a one-to-one situation.
Calangute backed by strong home support should have equalised in the 66th minute, Sachidanand Satelkar after controlling a pass from Rohan Pednelkar and showing good body strength to keep out the challenge by Assumption Soares moved dangerously into the goal area and let go a carpet drive which missed the side post by inches.
In the 76th minute, Ganesh Thakur could have wrapped up the match for Sporting when he got the better of a couple of defenders and keeper Savio Paes with some neat footwork but his goal bound placement was blocked for a corner by the defender.
Meanwhile, at Duler Stadium, Goan FC regsitered a hard fought 4-2 win over Dempo Sports Club and brought a halt to the winning spree of the Golden Eagles at Duler Stadium.
Goan FC went into the breather leading by two goals with Imran Khan (12th min) and Meldon D’Silva (41st min) scoring a goal each.
On crossing over, Sarineo Fernandes netted the third goal for the Young Gaurs. Dempo did try to come back into the match with Jaison Vaz netting a brace.
The Young Gaurs outfit hunger for goals did not end with Zodingliana pumping in the fourth goal to round off the score tally to 4-2.
At Navelim ground, after playing a goalless first half, Guardian Angel came back strongly in the second half as they scored two through Yakubu and an FC Bardez own goal after Sunny Fernandes strike deflected off a Bardez player before entering the net.
