ITANAGAR: Services bounced back to hold Kerala 1-1 to storm into the Santosh Trophy quarterfinals by virtue of topping Group A here on Friday.

Six-time champions Services finished their group assignments with 10 points, one clear of Goa, who drew with Assam 3-3 in another fixture.

Services, Goa, Kerala (8 points) and Assam (7) took the top-four spots in Group A to make the last-eight.

Seven-time champions Kerala took the lead in the 22nd minute off a corner kick.

Kerala skipper Arjun V lobbed the ball diagonally at the far corner and Sajeesh E completed the job with a neat header to put them ahead.

Services were quick to press hard and finally found the equaliser in the first half injury time (45+4’) through Samir Murmu, who so far has scored nine goals in the current edition.

In another match, Goa rode on goals from Lloyd Cardozo (3’), Delton Colaco (12’), and Joshua D’Silva (89’) to hold Assam in a six-goal thriller.

For Assam, Pragyan Sundar Gogoi (27’), Sudeepta Konwar (45+3rd) and Milan Basumatary (56’) struck one goal each.