Favourites Zahira College, Colombo, (ZCC) St. Joseph Vaz (SJV) College, St. Patrick's College, Jaffna (SPJ) and St. Henry's College, Jaffna, (SHJ) advanced to the Semi-Final (SF) stage of the Kotmale Under (U)-19 Football Championship 2016 with contrast wins in the Quarter-Finals (QF) played last week at the City Football ground.
SPJ reached the SF by overcoming the powerful Hameed Al-Husseinie College on penalty shootouts in the 1st QF.
The match ended in an exciting 1-1 draw, after Hameed Al-Husseinie drew first blood through Mohamed Aman in the 3rd minute with S. Abeeshan equalising for St. Pathrick's just before the short whistle.
The 2nd-half was scoreless, and in the ensuing penalty shootout SPJ won 3-1.
A.P. Anroot, D.H. Haines and R. Shanthan booted for the winners, while the loser's solitary goal came from Mohamed Sajid.
In the 2nd QF SJV stunned Holy Cross College, Kalutara, 5-2.
The 1st-half ended 1-0 in favour of SJV with Ashen Kanishka scoring in the 33rd minute.
After the resumption, Kaveen Suchithra and Bidushan Fernando scored within 5 minutes, 55th and 60th minute respectively, making it 3-0.
But Dineth Silva and Udara Perera gave Holy Cross hopes of a possible win by striking in the 65th and 69th minute respectively, to trail 2-3.
After a keen tussle, Devinda Milinda and Kaveen Suchithra put the issue beyond all doubt with goals in the 85th and 94th minute respectively to steer SJV home by 5-2.
The dark horse from the north, SHJ provided another stunner when they defeated Maris Stella College Negombo, an experienced side in the top league, in the 3rd QF clash.
SHJ was quick to take charge with goals from P. Krishanth and N. Lucky in the 8th and 17th minute respectively, to take 'lemons' with a 2-0 lead.
After the resumption, SHJ played defensively rather than be adventurous, and won 2-0.
Tournament favourites ZCC played to their potential to beat De Mazenod College Kandana 4-1, in the 4th QF.
Mohamed Aakib and T. Atheek struck in the 3rd and 5th minutes respectively for Zahira, but Deen Jaya pulled one back in the 15th minute for De Mazenod.
Zahira extended its lead to 3-1, when Mohamed Murshid scored in the 29th minute, at which score halftime was called.
The 2nd half was evenly contested with both sides trying seize the initiative, but ZCC, through a Mohamed Shafran goal in the 54th minute prevailed, to romp home 4-1.
Accordingly, SPJ will take on SJV in the 1st SF and SHJ will meet ZCC in the other.
However, the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) is yet to finalise dates for the 2 SFs.
The competition is organised and conducted by the FFSL, with the participation of top school teams from the districts.
From the Preliminary Rounds, the 28 teams that reached the 2nd Round were divided into 4 Groups of 7 seven teams each.
The top 2 in each Group qualified to play in the QFs.
Tamar Amitai, a 25-year-old Israeli tourist who went missing in Uppuveli, Trincomalee, was found safe after a three-day joint search operation today.
The Colombo High Court today (28) sentenced former parliamentarian Hirunika Premachandra to three years of Rigorous Imprisonment over charges of the involvement of an abduction.
In his special statement, President Ranil Wickremesinghe announced that debt restructuring agreements will postpone all bilateral loan payments to foreign countries until 2028. Additionally, Sri Lanka will have until 2043 to repay these loans on concessional terms.
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