Monday, August 03, 2009

St.Joseph's School lifts the TNA Challenge trophy 2009


Gangtok August02: St.Joseph's School,Darjeeling lifted the ' Royal Plaza Tashi Namgyal Academy [TNA] Challenge- 2009 trophy,edging past a spirited contest by the host school in the final match of the All India Invitational Inter School Tournament here at TNA ground on Sunday.
St.Joseph 's School defeated TNA in a tie-breaker,which bears out just how evenly the two teams were matched.
St.Joseph's School reached the finals after beating St.Anthony's School on Saturday.TNA booked its place in the finals after defeating St.Xavier's School,Pakyong 3-1.
Both the teams have played aggressive and evenly matched footbal right from the start with the home team have having obvious home-ground advantage by way of support from audience.The first half however ended in a goalless draw .
St.Joseph opened the scoreboard with Prabal Yonzon scoring the first goal early in the second half.Soom, his fellow striker Diwis Piyal scored as well and the Darjeeling team was leading 2-0.
TNA responded fast within minutes of the two goals in St.Joseph's School's favour.Sonam Gyatso and T Lachungpa scored a goal a piece for TNA and levelled the scoresline 2-2.
Regulation time ended on this score.
The match directly entered into tie-breaker though penalty shoot-out to decide the winner.
In the tie-breaker,St. Joseph's school scored 3 goals ,while only 2shots of TNA found the net.
The final match had Sikkim Assembly speaker ,K T Gyaltsen present as the Chief guest. The TNA goalkeeper ,Joshua Pattision , was awarded the Man of the Tournament trophy,while Riwang Bhutia of St.Joseph's School bagged the Man of the Final match award and his team mate ,Diwaz Piyal, took home the golden boots,being the highest scorer in the tournament.
The Chief guest gave away the medals,trophies,certificates,and cash prizes to both the teams.He also contributed Rs.10000- cash award for the winning team and Rs.5000- for the runners-up from his personal side.The match was also graced by the presence of Agriculture minister Dawacho Lepcha and Gangtok MLA.
Sports secretary,TNA Alumni Association [TNAAA] ,Zigmee Namgyal presented the Vote of Thanks.The five days long tournament was jointly organised by the TNAAA & TNA.
The tournament was participated in by the La Matinere from Kolkatta,Assam Valley School from Assam,St.Anthony's School from Shillong,St.Joseph's school from Darjeeling,St.Xavier's School from Pakyong and host team Tashi Namgyal Academy.