UST nips La Salle in UAAP Men's Football

c/o UAAP

University of Santo Tomas kicked off its second round campaign in the UAAP Season 86 Men's Football Tournament with a 2-1 victory over La Salle on Sunday at the UP Diliman Football Stadium.

The Golden Booters scored in each half to secure the victory over the Green Booters, with Justine Marquez scored the opening goal in the 44th minute.

Kyler Escobar then doubled the advantage in the 69th minute, thanks to a long diagonal assist from Archie Beluga.

La Salle managed to cut the deficit to a single goal after Paolo Go converted a free kick into a goal in the 81st minute, but they were never able to find the equalizer.

The closest that they could muster was during injury time, but Christian Penalosa's free kick attempt went in vain.

Head coach Marjo Allado shared afterwards, "Yung first game namin sa UAAP is must win. If La Salle kase manalo maiiwan kami so sa start nami ng first round diba talo so gusto namin umpisahan na ung second round na manalo ung team namin."

He adds, "Kahit mga 1st year rookies’ kayo pero sa abilities ninyo kaya nyo ung mga team eh, it’s a matter of confidence. Good game for us, maganda siya kase La Salle pa tinalo. Ung performance nila nag improve from the first round."

The victory puts UST into fourth place with ten points and a +3 goal difference, dropping their victims to fifth with nine points and a negligible GD.

Both teams will be back in action when the league resumes play after the Holy Week break at the UP Diliman Football Stadium on April 4.

UST faces UE at 4pm, followed by DLSU against Adamson at 6pm.