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Champions, Rüzhükhrie Government Higher Secondary School posing with the trophy after winning the 1st Kohima District Inter-School Football tournament at Kohima local ground on Saturday.[/caption]
The tournament was jointly organised by Royal Club Kohima and School Education department.
Playing in front of 5000 plus spectators, Rüzhükhrie and G. Rio provided an attention grabbing game that witnessed a nervy encounter during the match. But destiny went to Rüzhükhrie’s side as G. Rio’s defender scored an own goal to helpe the opponent to equalise the scoreline and finish the game in the injury time through Dziesenei-u.
Despite numerous attacks and better ball possession, Rüzhükhrie team failed to find the back of the net as G.Rio took the lead in the 20th minute when Sangti converted the goal from a corner kick as Rüzhükhrie defender failed to deal with the long ball.
However, eight minutes later, G.Rio defender scored an own goal to give Rüzhükhrie Govt HSS the much-needed equaliser in the 28th minute when the defender headed the ball back into his own net.
The second half saw a scoreless draw from both sides as they failed to break the 1-1 deadlock until injury time when Dziesenei-u scored the winning goal in the dying minutes to seal the victory for Rüzhükhrie. With the win, the team became the 1st Champions of the tournament.
Rüzhükhrie Govt HSS walked home with Rs 70,000/- along with the trophy and citation while G.Rio School pocketed Rs 50,000 along with certificates.
The two semi-finalists i.e. Mt Sinai HSS and Ministers’ Hill Baptist HSS received a cash prize of Rs 20,000/- each along with certificates. Meanwhile, all the 24 participating schools also received certificates.
Earlier Temjen Toy, Additional Chief Secretary graced the closing ceremony as the guest of honour. In his address, he hoped that the young potential talents have been identified during the tournament and anticipated that those players should be given proper training in the future for their growth.
Rüzhükhrie Govt HSS on their way to victory, defeated Baptist High 5-4 via tie-breaker in the first round, thrashed Dainty Buds 5-0 in the 2nd round, overcame Mt.Hermon 2-0 in quarters. They also edged out Ministers' Hill Baptist HSS 2-0 as the Pool-B winner, and beat Mt.Sinai HSS 1-0 in the semi-finals.
The 17 days tournament saw 25 matches with 77 goals scored with three hat-tricks by Zepude of Azedon, Tingbadwangbe of Bethel HSS and Gideon Leo of MHBHSS