Hat-trick Hero Beevan D'Mello shines in Vasco's win over Panjim Footballers

Ravish Narvekar

The three points helped the Port Towner climb back to the 10th position with six points.

Beevan D'Mello scored a hat-trick as Vasco Sports Club secured an impressive 3-1 win over Panjim Footballers in the Goa Professional League 2022-23 match played at Nagoa Panchayat Ground on Friday evening.

Beevan put his side ahead in the 21st minute, while Sridhar Naidu cancelled it in the 25th minute. However, Beevan's double (74' & 80') helped the Port Towners to claim all three points.

Vasco who had few changes to their side, made an attacking start and kept Panjim's defence line on their toes. In one of them, Cavin Lobo found Suman Lepcha from the long-distance freekick but the lad missed the target narrowly.

Panjim also had a couple of chances but on both occasions, their forward Britto Pereira failed to keep his strikes on target. At the other end, Cavin smartly found Beevan from the throw-in where the forward danced his way past in the box but his goalbound strike was brilliantly blocked by Panjim defender Dhiraj Chouhan. A few minutes later, once again Cavin set up Beevan in the box with a lob pass but the forward shot wide with just a rival keeper at his stake.

Panjim should have surged ahead in the 19th minute when Deep Pednekar found himself at the receiving end of a loose ball at the top but the midfielder couldn't keep his volley on target.

After an end-to-end affair, Vasco finally managed to deadlock as Cavin and Beevan once again combined together in the rival cathedral as another lob pass from the midfielder set up the forward who this time made no mistake to beat Panjim keeper Mackvino Colaco with a power-pack shot to put Vasco ahead in the 21st minute.

However, Vasco's joy was cut short within the next four minutes as Akash Banavalikar's through pass was nicely collected by Sridhar and beat Vasco keeper Luis Barreto from inside the box to make it all square for the Capital city side.

Beevan almost doubled the lead for Vasco in the 31st minute when Ayan Sarma snatched the ball from a Panjim midfielder and nicely curled it inside the box to Beevan whose header deflected off Panjim defender Akash's head and went out for a corner.

Vasco had a chance to restore their lead just before the half-time whistle when Cavin came with a beautiful through pass to Ganesh Thakur who wasted an opportunity to take his side into the lead with a wide shot.

Panjim were reduced to 10-man in the added minutes of the session as their skipper Dhiraj was sent off for bringing down Vasco's Ayan Sarma off the ball.

Hat-trick Hero Beevan D'Mello was judged the Man of the match for his superb performance. The award was presented by Panjim Footballers Manager & GFA Ex-Co Member Anthony Vaz.

After a midfield play in the first 20 minutes of the second session, Panjim had a golden opportunity when Clifton Rebello made a low cross to unmarked Maximo in front of the goal but the lad shot over the frame with just a rival keeper to beat.

Despite having a disadvantage, Panjim were the dominant side with continuous attacks where the Port Towners' last line was on the toe to clear every danger.

Vasco manager Jagdish Raikar made a timely substitution bringing in Francisco Fernandes to replace Suman. The change in strategy by Vasco's manager helped the Port Towners as they made back-to-back attacks.

The Port Towners finally managed to take the lead in the 74th minute through Beevan. The forward smartly headed in from inside the box off Cavin's well-taken corner to make it 2-1. The lead gave confidence to the Port Towners as they further extended their lead as it was a recap of the last goal where Cavin's inch-perfect corner and Beevan's unstoppable header made it 3-1 in the 80th minute.