For the Colgate Junior Aga Khan Cup Inter-Schools hockey triumph today at Bandra was no more, nor less than a fairy tale for the lads from the suburb of Orlem.

Playing formidable St Stanislaus (Bandra), going gung-ho for a hat-trick of titles at St Andrew's High School Ground, St Anne's (Orlem) found themselves down 0-2 at half-time, 1-3 down after the change of ends and 3-4 down with only minutes remaining.

But St Anne's seemed to know little of the word defeat and taking a fascinating final into a penalty shootout, found in goalkeeper Brian Nazareth a player to script the final winning touch.

A tall lad, Brian dived to his right, lunged to his left and then right again before being mobbed by teammates amid atmosphere and ambience that gave the beleagured sport a breath of fresh air.

``The pressure brought out the best in me,'' Brian, gushing withexcitement, said after the match.

It took another goalkeeper -- but in a different role -- to decide the girls' knock-out final that went all the way to the shoot-out after a barren 60 minutes of regulation play, including 10 minutes extra-time.

St Joseph's (Bandra) Glynelle Pereira needed to remove her mask, protectors, pads and gloves before showing her team-mates how it's done.

She pushed past St Xavier's (Kanjurmarg) Ameliann Fernandes from the last stroke to seal the title after nine previous attempts came to nought.

If hockey is thought to be dying in the city, then today's action must come as resurrection. Old timers, usually cynical at present day play, trooped out shaking heads in glee. It might sound ludicrous, but the under-16 boys produced vintage hockey.

Fast-paced play, sound trapping, long passes, firm tackling and ruthless shooting -- the duel had it all.

All that along with a sound sense of positional play, penalty-corner drills but most encouragingly, the penchant on attack,attack and more attack.

And opportunism as well. Pillay's men in Bangkok, please take note. Delano D'Souza demonstrated. A deflection from Clyde D'Souza on the right found the net over a falling goalkeeper in the 13th minute of the hour-long match.

And 2-0 in the 19th when Avlon D'Souza followed in the same vein.

But let not hockey be a game only of technicalities. St Anne's showed character and spirit, despite not enjoying the vocal majority. Rohit Charles flicked home in a trice to pull one back as the Orlem lads turned on the heat at the start of the second half.

Only for St Anne's to fall back 1-3 within seconds, the little No 10 Kyle Mascarenhas pushing home after Anne's 'keeper slid over a forward ball by Stanislaus' Delano D'Souza.

No change in spirit or attacking urges. Spurred on by throaty support, including vociferous principal Fr Ronnie Braganza, who turned up ``for the fun of it all'', St Anne's came roaring back. Agnelo Fernandes reopened the contest with an opportunistic goal in the35th minute before Sneden Pereira spanked the boards with an aggression that Indian hockey badly needs to make it 3-3 in the 39th.

But surely it should have ended at 4-3 when Stanislaus worked out a clever penalty-corner drill for Jonathan Fernandes to sound the boards. Fifteen minutes to go, but the match and spectators, bugles, crackers and all, were begging for more.

The Anne's boys, and Alisdair Sequeira in particular, had every intention to oblige.

And with nine minutes left, another penalty-corner variation found pusher-out Alisdair ideally placed to deliver the coup-de-grace.

Four-all, but it wasn't all. More drama amid end-to-end action and a salvo fired by little Kyle zoomed just over the cross-piece before the sides resigned themselves to a premature tie-breaker with fading light prohibiting the search for a `golden goal.'