Shillong, Aug 1: Jubilant Mawkasiang and heartbroken Mawphlang were involved in a tense third quarterfinal of the Shillong Sports Association’s U-20 Fourth Division 2025 here today, with Mawkasiang winning a tiebreaker 6-5 at the SSA Stadium at First Ground, Polo.
Mawkasiang had won all of their previous six matches this season – four in the group stage plus the two second round fixtures – but were unable to break Mawphlang, who have been almost impressive with five wins out of six.
The match was a little rough and tumble with neither side able to get into a good flow. This despite Mawphlang being backed to the hilt by a wonderful crowd who turned out to support them.
After the 80 minutes of regulation time the match moved straight to the penalty shootout. (Extra time in the Fourth Division will only be used in the final, if needed.)
The tiebreaker saw 10 of the first 11 takers choose to go to the right of the goalkeeper and each of these scored. The 12th kick from the spot was by Mawphlang and this time it went high to the left of Fanbius Marbaniang but he was able to push it away, giving Mawkasiang the victory.
A quarterfinal win means that Mawkasiang have secured promotion to next season’s Third Division and will also play in this year’s Fourth Division semifinal. Their opponents will be the team that win tomorrow’s fourth last-eight match.
Tomorrow’s fixture:
QF 4 – Laitkroh vs Lummawbah, 2:30PM
(TSR photo. Mawkasiang players celebrate after the tiebreaker)