The Army Boys from Lucknow Cantonment opened their Under-17 boys campaign in great style, beating Government Senior Secondary School from Car Nicobar Islands 9-0 in the Subroto Cup here today.
In the showpiece event of the tournament, the Army boys showed no mercy to the lowly-placed team.
Minaetan Meitei, their star performer on the day, opened the account for the Lucknow team, scoring in the 11th, 26th, 44th and 49th minute. Other major contribution came from Lakhai Besra, who netted three goals with Vishal and Mohammad Ajmir scoring once each.
The Car Nicobar school has to pull up its socks in remaining group A matches if they were to stand a chance of moving into the next stage.
In second match of the day, St. Stanislaus School from Bihar showed a lot of verve to down Emerald Heights International School from Madhya Pradesh. The Bihar outfit won 2-1 in a match that kept everyone, including those on the benches, on tenterhooks.
Thanks to their main striker, Suleman Kisku, the Bihar team had a comfortable 2-0 lead - first he scored in the eighth minute and consolidated 40 minutes later - which helped their cause as Kratin Tiwari just about managed to pull one back three minutes from time.
The IPSC team, part of DPS RK Puram, won 2-0 in a one-sided Group A meeting with Government Boys Higher Secondary School from Chhattisgarh.
Meanwhile, BSL High School from Jharkhand eked out a 1-1 draw against Afros Higher Secondary School from Manipur.
