Satara,Nashik and Gondia light up the opening day

by Kaushal Shukla December 10, 2015

The Inter District Football Championship for Maharashtra Sub-Junior Boys kicked off at the Sports Complex Ground in Panchawati, Nashik on Thursday, as Satara, Bhandara, Nashik, Washim, Gondia, Hingoli and Sindhudurg successfully cleared the first hurdle to claim their place in the second round of matches, scheduled to be held on Friday.

The Championship began in contrasting fashion as Satara took Yavatmal to the sword in the Championship opener romping to a 8-0 victory, while Bhandara needed a penalty shootout to see off a spirited Solapur outfit after the second opening game was tied at 2-2 after the regulation sixty minutes of play.

Satara’s Dhananjay Kadam scored a superb hat-trick and was very well supported by Yashwardhan More and Anurag Sawant, both of whom scored a brace each adding to Yash Nikam’s strike which added up to an 8-0 success for Satara, while Bhandara came from a goal don to edge Solapur on penalties.

However the story of the day was of hosts Nashik, who were making a return to district level football after over a decade and made it a memorable occasion as they eased to a 5-0 win over Osmanabad who found the Nashik forwards too hot to handle. Nashik’s Yash Gangwal netted a sublime brace as Rutig Ahirrao, Siddhesh Patil and Bindusar Chaudhary too got on the scoresheet for the hosts.

Gondia was yet another team who didn’t find goals too hard to come by as they dispatched Nandurbar 5-1 thanks to an Ashraf Qureshi hat-trick and goals from Devanshu Netam and Abhishek Gajbia. However the battle between Hingoli and Latur was a cagey one, which was edged by Hingoli by a solitary goal by Shaikh Altaf Gaus in the 43^rd minute of the game.

Washim also booked a place in the second round of the Championship with a comfortable 4-0 win over Buldhana. Washim rode on Kenial Nirmal’s hat-trick to ease them past Buldhana as Deepak Dhangare’s goal proved to be the icing on the cake for Washim.

Raigad’s failure to make it for their game meant Sindudurga were handed a walkover to the next round as Jalna concluded an action packed opening day’s action with a 4-1 win over Parbhani.

The first round of the Inter District Football Championship for Maharashtra Junior Boys saw plenty of goals and three young stars scoring hat-tricks in landslide wins for their respective sides as the first round of matches concluded at the Sports Complex Stadium in Nashik.