MAPUSA: Churchill Brothers (Juniors) were held to a 1-1 draw, by title aspirants Dempo (Juniors) in the 1st Division GFA Taca Goa U-20 league at Duler grounds, here on Monday.

Dempo strikers squandered numerous goal scoring opportunities right from the start of the match till the final hooter.
Aiken Dias and Jessel Carneiro kept their strikers Joshuah Vaz, Terence and Romeo Fernandes busy upfront, but the trio, either failed to shoot accurately, or were timely tackled by the last line of Churchill defence held by Ryan Mergulha, Leny Pereira, Frazier Ragtao and Alison Fernandes.
At the other end, Dempo’s skipper Shallum Pires played an important role as stopper back in place of Pratemesh Maulinkar who had to watch the match from the stands for double booking.
While Dempo did most of the attacking, it was their opponents who broke the deadlock in the 5th minute on crossing over, when Churchill skipper Sabino Rodrigues latched a scorching left footer, which was blocked on the goal line by substitute Mohamed Ali, but the ball travelled to Leny J Pereira, whose stiff grounder crashed into the Dempo goal, 1-0.
Dempo lads went all out in search of the equaliser, which they ultimately got in the 57th minute, as Romeo Fernandes  held on to a loose ball inside the 18-yard box and fired a right footer, which not only caught the Churchill defence on the wrong foot, but also keeper Preston Fernandes,1-1.