A superb brace by Freddy Mascarenhas powered Churchill Brothers to a 4-2 victory over Tollygunge Agragami in the Federation Cup football tournament at the Nehru stadium in Margao, Goa, on Thursday.
The victory earned the Goa side a meeting with East Bengal in the quarter-finals.
Earlier, in the first match of the day, fancied Mahindra United laboured to a 1-0 victory over JCT Mills.
Churchill's victory was even easier than the scoreline suggests. They were a goal up by the fifth minute but complacency proved their undoing as they conceded a goal in stoppage time of the first half and crossed over on even terms.
They then scored twice in an attacking spell of two minutes to sit high in the saddle before an own goal allowed the Kolkata side to reduce the margin.
Mascarenhas gave meaning to Churchill's early flourish when he bulged the net in the fifth minute, finishing smartly off a passing bout from midfield.
But Tollygunge restored parity much against the run of play when Ayan Chowdhury found the net from a scrimmage at the top of the box in stoppage time of the first period.
After a couple of narrow misses, Churchill regained the lead in the 65th minute. This time it was a gem of a goal by Mascarenhas. The gangling striker cut past two defenders, drew out the advancing goalkeeper and beat him with a stiff left-footer.
The home team's supporters had hardly finished cheering the goal when Tony Ngozi fashioned Churchill's third as he ran down the right and squared from near the touch line. Tollygunge defender Azim, in an attempt to clear, deflected the ball into his goal.
But there was a similar goal at the other end as Churchill defender Vilroy D'Cruz deflected the ball into his goal in the 71st minute, trying to clear a cross.
Amjad Hussain then dashed whatever hopes the Kolkata side may have entertained of staging a fightback by scoring straight from the restart to put the issue beyond doubt.
In the last ten minutes, Churchill were all over the Tollygunge citadel and repeatedly fed Mascarenahas so that he could get a hat-trick, but the striker was denied the honour by some robust tackling from the Tollygunge defenders which forced him to be carried off the field.
