The Maharashtra U-15 Girls team made a bright, positive start, winning their opening match of the AIFF Sub-Junior Girls’ Under-15 National Football Championship with a flourish.

Powered by the combined brilliance of the strike duo, skipper Bhagyashree Dalvi and Tricia Colaco, both scoring four and three goals respectively, Maharashtra recorded a resounding 10-1 victory against Uttarakhand in a Group E league match of the tournament, played at Cuttack, Odisha on Saturday.

Maharashtra showed better skills, coordination and understanding as they quickly took control of the proceedings to assert their domination against the Uttarakhand girls who failed to offer much resistance.

Indian international Bhagyashree leading by example stamped her class by netting the first goal for Maharashtra in the very third minute. That goal opened the floodgates as Maharashtra later scored at regular intervals to blow away their opponents. Later Bhagyashree scored the 3rd and 5th goals in the 11th and 21st minutes to notch her hat-trick before hammering home the 9th goal of the match in the 73rd minute to complete her four-goal scoring spree.

Tricia, who partnered Bhagyashree in the attack and played a good supporting role, struck the 7th (46th minute), 8th (61st) and 10th (90+2nd) goals for her hat-trick and to complete the demolition. Also making contributions to the win was Aishwarya Gadekar who netted a brace (7th and 14th minutes) and Reetika Sahani who converted a penalty in the 38th minute.

Uttarkhand who were fighting a losing battle scored their lone goal in the 82nd minute.

Maharashtra will meet Sikkim, the third team in the group on Wednesday. The outcome of the match will decide which team advances to the quarter-final league.