MAHATMA Gandhi Memorial High School (MGM) U15 have been crowned champions of the Suva Secondary Schools Football Association U15 tournament, narrowly defeating a determined DAV Boys College team 5-4 in a thrilling penalty shootout.
The match remained locked at 0-0 after extra time, leading to the nerve-wracking shootout.
MGM’s right back, Petaia Ben, sealed the victory by calmly scoring the winning penalty following a missed attempt by a DAV Boys player.
Team manager Sidharth Chand described the victory as a special one, especially after their earlier defeat to DAV Boys College in the round-robin stage.
“For the boys today, they have done really well coming from a loss in our previous game and being at the bottom of our pool, then coming through to the final beating SMC 3-0,” he said.
“And now we’re really proud of the boys – they have truly executed everything we have worked on in training.”
Chand revealed that the message to the players before the penalty shootout was simple: to execute what they had practised.
Right back Petaia Ben, who scored the winning penalty, said his success was thanks to the motivation of his teammates.
“I was a bit nervous and anxious, but my teammates encouraged me and I was happy to score the winning penalty,” he said.
As champions of the Suva Secondary Schools Football Association U15 tournament, Mahatma Gandhi Memorial School have now qualified for the playoffs of the national secondary school’s inter-district competition.
