Churchill ease past Vasco in Goa Sevens

Churchill's Ricardo Cardozo bagged the Man of the Match award for an excellent job in between the sticks...

Churchill Brothers Sports Club registered a fluent 3-0 win over Vasco Sports Club in the Goa Sevens Premier League match played at Sports Authority Ground, Fatorda, on Thursday.

Clifford Miranda, Nicholas Fernandes and Agnelo Colaco scored a goal each for the winners to give them six points from two games. Vasco SC are yet to open their account.

Churchill coach Joao Rebello made just one change in his side which defeated Dempo SC 3-1, with Aniston Fernandes replacing Samson Fernandes. Vasco coach Eban Misquita replaced Princeton Rebello and Terrence Lobo with Lalbabu Matho and Rovan Pereira from the side’s 1-5 defeat against SCC Cavelossim.

With Ricardo Cardozo in Churchill's goal, Vasco had a tough time in cracking the rival goal. The Red Machines custodian denied Rovan Pereira early in the game with a fine save.

The Varca team didn’t take long to turn their domination into the lead, as captain Clifford Miranda opened the scoring in the 7th minute with a grounder which went past the diving Vasco keeper Prabhakar Kattimani.

Vasco gave a strong fight in the second quarter of the match and Sunny Fernandes came close to scoring in the 18th minute only to see his shot miss by a whisker.

Minutes later, Churchill doubled the lead against the run of play through Nicholas Fernandes with a low right footer.

The second half started with Churchill bringing on Quann Gomes in place of Aniston Fernandes.

With a damp and a slow start to the second half, Churchill coach Joao withdrew Nicholas –who had a brilliant first half –bringing on JoshuaVaz and the change finally paid off as the Red Machines scored the third of the evening in the 49th minute.

Agnelo Colaco's long range shot had no answer from the helpless Vasco SC keeper P Kattimani.

The Port Towners desperately tried to get on the scoresheet in the final 10 minutes of the match however, they just couldn’t get past Ricardo Cardozo –who was awarded the Man of the-Match for his standout performance in two games in a row for Churchill.

Churchill had a chance to further inflate their lead in the 58th minute, but Kattimani’s pulled off a diving save to keep Quan off the score sheet.

In the dying minutes of the match, Vasco's Rovan missed a sitter after Ricardo spilt the ball into the opponent’s way.