Shillong, Jan 4: H Elias Higher Secondary School, Shillong College Higher Secondary Section and Shillong College will look to go all the way and win their respective trophies in the Junior Boys, Senior Boys and College Boys categories of the Reliance Foundation Youth Sports 2019-20 National Football Finals in Navi Mumbai on Sunday.
H Elias will take on Government Oriental High School of Kerala at 11:30AM, followed by Shillong College HSS versus MSP HSS of Kozhikode at 1:30PM and Shillong College versus Dr Bhupendra Nath Dutta Smriti Mahavidyalaya of Kolkata at 4PM.
Prior to these matches will be the School Girls final at 7:30AM and Sub-Junior Boys final at 9:30AM. Nilamani English School (girls) and Unique Model Academy (boys), both of Imphal, are in those two title matches, meaning that there is a North East team in each of finals of the five categories.
As far as the Shillong teams go, H Elias are on a four-game winning streak, having been victorious in all three of their group matches before winning their semifinal fixture. The boys started by coming from a goal down to beat Kamla Devi Public School of Bhopal 2-1. They then trounced Mamta Modern SSS of Delhi 3-0 before smashing Government Oriental High School of Kerala (who they will meet again in the final) 4-0 and edging ASC Boys Sports School of Bangalore 2-1 in the semis.
Shillong College HSS started with a 3-1 victory over Chitkara International School of Chandigarh, before going on to win 2-0 over Fr Agnel HSS of Goa. They then experienced a close-run 2-2 result against ASC Boys Sports School of Bangalore. Shillong College then had their best result in the semifinal, coming through as 4-0 winners against Mamta Modern SSS of Delhi.
Their seniors, meanwhile, got off to an incredible start with an 11-1 thrashing of DAV PG College of Dehradun. The next game, though, saw Shillong College brought back down to earth, with Loyola College of Chennai giving them a very tough fight in which the Shillong boys just about managed a point in an exciting 3-3 draw. Their last group match saw a return to one-sidedness, with Shillong College hammering Indore Christian College 7-2. They then reached the final after a 2-1 win against Farook College of Kozhikode.
(Reliance Foundation Youth Sports file photo)
