PONDA: Vishant Pednekar’s brace helped host Ponda Veterans to defeat Verna Veterans 2-0 and enter the semi-finals of all-Goa Veterans Soccer Tournament,played at Dayanand Bandodkar ground, Bandora, Monday.
The match was evvenly poised as Ponda took the lead in the 14th minute of the match when Remi gave a diagonal pass to Vishant who dodged a defender and his shot beat the keeper to make it 1-0. Ponda got a free-kick on top of the box and Vishant managed to beat the wall but the ball hit the crossbar. A Verna player gave another free-kick at the same spot and this time Vishant managed to increase his tally to make it 2-0.
In the second half, Verna went into all out attack but Nelson, Shaikh and Santan managed to put together a solid defence. Ponda nearly increased the lead when Naresh he dodged 3 defenders but his shot was punched out by the Verna keeper.
Ponda Veterans will now meet Candolim Veterans in the semis on March 23.
