Haryana feast on Kerala, hijab-clad Afghan grils lose

It was a refreshing sight for spectators at the 55th edition of Subroto Cup football tournament as the under-17 girls' events kicked off at the Ambedkar Stadium here today.
In the first of the under-17 category girls event, Government Girls Senior Secondary High School from Mangali Hissar (Haryana) came up trumps with a 17-0 verdict against GVH Senior Secondary School (Kerala).
The Kerala girls seemed like lambs in a slaughter house as their Haryana rivals pounded them time and again.
Haryana, on their maiden aperance, without wasting any time, opened their account in the very first minute through Anju S, who went on to score two more goals later. But Anju's first goal opened the floodgates for her teammates to strike at will resulting in a huge win in group C.

Renu, their main striker, netted five times to be the top-scorer for the Haryana school. Others who joined the goal-glut were Mona (2), Pooja (2), Anju S. (3), Santosh (2) , Anju K. (2) and Manju (1) to complete the tally.
Sukhvinder Kaur, an NIS qualified coach, was happy her team accomplished the task.

"We had just a one mission of qualifying for the tournament as state champion. Our girls had worked very hard in the past one and achieved their goal," said Kaur, appreciating her team's maiden performance. Star performance of the team, Renu said: "It feels great to start the tournament on a winning note and we have the potential go the full distance."

In a group B match at the same venue, the hijab-clad (headscarf) Afghanistan High School (Kabul) lost to St. Augustine High School (Maharashtra) 3-1. As compared to their counterparts from Kabul, who played in the under-14 boys' section, the Afghan girls did put up a brave front against the Maharashtra side.
Pooja opened the scoring in the 19th minute but the Afghans defended stoutly to deny them in the rest of the first half.
However, Reetika's second goal soon after the break saw the school go 2-0 in the 36 th minute even as the Kabul school pulled one back through Nilab (46). Reetika made most of a chance in the 51st minute to seal their rivals' fate.