Pramod Pokhrel

Mahendranagar, April 3:

Raj Kumar Ghising netted 14 goals as Lalitpur thrashed Tikapur 18-5 and Rishi Rai scored a hat-trick in Dharan Municipality’s 4-0 win over Bhaktapur in the day’s matches of the central-level Birendra Memorial Inter-municipalit Football Tournament here today.

With the win, Dharan became the first team to enter the semi-finals of the 10-day tournament, while Lalitpur made it to the quarter-finals.

Now, Lalitpur Sub-metropolis will face Biratnagar Municipality on Tuesday, and the winner is scheduled to meet Dharan in Thursday’s semi-finals.

Suman Subedi put Dharan ahead in the 13th minute when he found the net on a header following Arjun Rai’s free kick.

Rishi Rai, who had scored six goals in Sunday’s win over Baglung Municipality, netted his first and Dharan’s second goal in the 47th minute. Rai made it 3-0 when his shot from the edge of the D-Box kissed the net and he completed his hat-trick in the dying moments following Deepak Limbu’s pass.

Dharan, who entered the quarter-finals after a walkover from Siddharthanagar Municipality, dominated the match from the beginning. Bhaktapur were without experienced goalkeeper Channu Ram Chaudhary, who returned to Kathmandu after playing just one match.

After the match, Dharan coach Kiran Sharma said that his boys played brilliantly. “The performance from the boys was beyond expectations,” he said.

In an earlier match, Raj Kumar Ghising became the first footballer to score 14 goals in a match as Lalitpur Sub-metropolis routed Tikapur Municipality 18-5 to enter the last four.

Assisted mainly by midfielders Birat Thapa, Chandra Tamang, and Prabin Manandhar, the Under-19 striker Ghising scored in the eighth, 29th, 36th, 37th, 44th, 45th, 50th, 57th, 59th, 60th, 65th, 72nd, 79th and 83rd minutes.

Sishir Adhikari, Birat Thapa, Chandra Tamang, and Prabin Manandhar also scored for Lalitpur. For Tikapur, Bikash Saud scored a hat-trick and Arjun Saithi netted two goals.