Churchill Brothers played a scintillating first-half to blank Air India 3-0 and surge into the quarter-finals of the 28th Peerless Federation Cup football tournament in Kolkata on Thursday.
In the other match, Mohun Bagan grabbed the last quarterfinal berth, with a 4-1 victory over Viva Kerala. Baichung Bhutia and Mehtab Hossian scored a brace each for the Kolkata team.
Churchill's Geroge Ekeh scored a brace while Okoli Odafa found the target once in the Salt Lake stadium match, with all the goals coming in the opening half.
Maintaining overwhelming superiority right through the 90-minute encounter, Churchill shot into the lead as early as the sixth minute through Odafa. The striker dodged past A Martins and Femy Adiola to bring off a fine finish with a lethal volley.
Hardly had the celebrations died down in the Churchill camp, Libaria's Ekeh brought in more cheers as he showed fine opportunism to put in a Robert Lalthamvana cross to make the scoreline 2-0.
There was no let-up in the Churchill onslaught and in the 41st minute Odafa sent in a low cross from the right and Ekeh let go a power-packed right footer into the net.
Air India looked rudderless, but tried to stage a comeback in the second session.
In the 57th minute they came close to scoring, but Samson Singh's effort was blocked by Churchill custodian Vinay Singh.
Four minutes from the final whistle, Air India were distinctly unlucky as Vinay Kuruvilla's stinging shot came off the woodwork.
