Kerala made a flying start to its campaign in the National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy drubbing Chandigarh 5-1 in its Group A league match here on Monday.
In the other match in the same group, defending champion Bengal outclassed former champion Manipur 3-0.
For five-time champion Kerala young M.S. Jithin scored twice while Sajith Poulose, V.K. Afdal and V.S. Sreekuttan fired in a goal each. Vishal Sharma got the lone goal for Chandigarh.
Playing with a two-man attack, Kerala struck early as Jithin, who made it to the side through the under-21 quota, converted a pass from S. Seesan.
Kerala doubled the lead in the 18th minute through Sajith Poulose.
Kerala made it 3-0 by the 49th minute when Jithin set up striker Afdal with another good assist.
Kerala piled on Chandigarh’s misery as Jithin scored his second and the team’s fourth in the 51st minute. Substitute Sreekuttan completed the formalities in the 77th minute seeing his snap attempt going in after hitting the post.
Bengal also took an early lead, Sumit Das finding the net in the seventh minute after captain Jiten Murmu’s header on a Tirthankar Sarkar corner came off the crosspiece.
Bengal doubled the tally in the 15th minute, Das guiding home a pass from upfront colleague Bidyasagar Singh.
Bengal completed the scoring process in the 82nd minute when Bidyasagar found the target off a nice volley.
The results:
Kerala 5 (M.S. Jithin 11, 51; Sajith Poulose 18, V.K. Afdal 49, Sreekuttan 77) bt Chandigarh 1 (Vishal Sharma 88).
Bengal 3 (Sumit Das 7, 15; Bidyasagar Singh 82) bt Manipur 0.
