For the boys from the West it was a must-win situation, as they were held to a one-one draw by Assam. However, it was the other way round for Kerala. A draw was enough to take them through. Keeping that in mind, Kerala went on the defensive. Maharashtra forwards made good use of the situation and went on the rampage. It was left-striker C V Sunny, brother of international C V Pappachan, who provided the breakthrough for the team in the 16th minute, with a tenacious move from the left. All hell broke lose in the Maharashtra defence, as the left-striker was guiding the ball into the danger area.

Sunny capitalised on the confusion and quickly passed it on to Saheer, the darling of the crowd, who was well positioned on the right. The right-wingerbombarded the rival defence with his menacing right foot, only to see it get deflected back to Sunny, who with surgical precision slammed the ball home.

Uday Konar, who substituted for Ryan D'Souza in the 23rd minute, played like one possessed. He stole the ball in an adventurous manner and caught the Kerala defence offguard on several occasions. One such sharp burst of his fetched Maharashtra the equaliser. Uday took the ball to the line and centered in a pass to Abbas Rizwi, who struck it hard and neat past M V Nelson, the Kerala custodian.

In the 68th minute, Boniface netted the winner for the team with a stunning volley from a 50-yard range. Star-striker Manjit Singh of Maharashtra, who suffered an ankle sprain was a prominent absentee in the first session. Maharastra was forced to use him midway through the second, but he failed to find his rythm despite his hard work.

Manipur score
Udhagamandalam: Manipur shrugged off their inhibitions and the underdog tag in style, outplaying Servicesby two first half goals in the quarterfinal league of the Santosh Trophy here on Sunday, reports Ravi Menon.

Wangkhupler Kom (4th) and Manaora Singh (34th) found the net for Manipur who now only need a draw against Bengal on Monday to make the last four stage. Services, twice beaten, are out of contention for a semifinal berth.

Kom opened the account in the 4th, heading a Subhash Chandra Singh pass into the roof of the net. Shyamchand Singh sparked off the move, cutting infield at the end of an uninterrupted 15-yard run along the right, and transporting the ball to Subhash at the left.

And it was Subhash again, who did the spadework for Manipur's second strike after 30 minutes of fierce midfield battle. This time he snatched the ball from Naveen Gurung and centred to Kom. Manaoba Singh was at the right position in the heart of box to trap Kom's back-heeled pass, which he drove home without much effort.

Goa on a roll
Chennai: As a warm up contest Goa could not have asked for better.With a sprinkle of players from Salgaocar, the latest NFL champions, runners-up Goa had a racy start to their campaign, with a 3-0 win at the expense of Chandigarh in the quarterfinal league of the event at the Nehru Stadium on Sunday, reports KV Vasudevan.

On the flip side, Goa may well have wished for a tight contest, billed they are to play Karnataka in the final Group II match on Tuesday. Karnataka enjoy a solitary goal advantage over Goa and a draw will suit their designs.

Jules Alberto set the early spark with a delectable backheel from one of those unending Bruno Coutinho's supply. Bruno and Shaiza combined for the first strike, taking all of 40 minutes. Bruno followed the course of a Shaiza chip and left the defence in shambles as he rifled in a shot to the near post.

It was the other way round when Shaiza timed his jump to lend colour and substance to a Bruno tuck past the hour. The familiar sight of substitute Marcus Carvalho signalled his arrival with a goal to round the day on a high notewith the promise of more to come.