FEU-D nips Southridge to earn consecutive wins

c/o UAAP Media Team

UAAP Season 87 High School Boys’ Football Tournament Standings

FEU-D 6 points (+7)

UST 4 points (+3)

DLSZ 4 points (+1)

Ateneo 3 points (+1)

SRG 0 points (-4)

CSQC 0 points (-8)

Matches on Wednesday at the UP Diliman Football Stadium

2 p.m. — UST vs CSQC

4:30 p.m. — DLSZ vs SRG

7 p.m. — FEU-D vs Ateneo

JERRIEMY Biton found the breakthrough as defending champion Far Eastern University-Diliman rose to its familiar place at the top of the UAAP Season 87 High School Boys’ Football Tournament by breaking down stubborn PAREF Southridge School, 1-0, on Saturday at the UP Diliman Football Stadium.

The recruit out of Himamaylan Elementary School delivered a fantastic finish at the face of the goal in the 67th minute to propel the Baby Tamaraws to first place in the standings with six points and a plus-7 goal difference.

“Biton, para sa akin, he’s always doing good (and) doing well naman,” said Baby Tamaraws coach Jake Morallo, whose crew is seeking a 13th straight title. “Kailangan lang siguro mag-create (ng) more chances with timing sa penetration and yung focus kase sa first half medyo off talaga siya. I think nag-work out yung gameplan namin sa second half so masaya kami nasunod nila yung gameplan namin.”

On the other hand, De La Salle Zobel and University of Santo Tomas continued their unbeaten start to the competition by canceling each other out with a goalless in the last match of the play date.

Throughout the match, the Admirals defended resolutely against the Baby Tamaraws.

Southridge almost stole a goal early in the second half as winger Joziah Kendrick Rance had an attempt at goal that went straight at Baby Tamaraws goalkeeper Gianne Carlos Abara.

After Biton broke the deadlock for FEU-D, Rance had another chance to put the ball at the back of the net for Southridge, only for his tame attempt to be easily caught by Abara.

Substitute Dionesio Diaz was in a good place to double the Baby Tamaraws’ cushion, yet he could only shoot wide as FEU-D did enough to claim its second straight win this season.

“Para sa akin, maganda yung game to be honest,” said Morallo. “In fairness naman sa Southridge, they are very disciplined (with) having a back five sa defending positions nila. Really difficult na maka-score kami.

“We were struggling sa first half then in the second half, I think mas gumanda yung laban namin. Mas nakikita namin sa second half yung winning mentality namin so happy pa rin sa panalo namin today,” he continued.

With each team coming off an opening-day win, La Salle and UST played an entertaining stalemate to go level on four points in the standings with the Junior Golden Booters claming second place with a plus-3 GD to the Junior Archers’ plus-1.

UST forward Lucky Aque had a chance in the first half to open the scoring but his attempt went straight to La Salle goalkeeper Jacob Salavante.

Come the second half, La Salle midfielder Giomell Gigataras had a shot blocked while the Junior Archers had a penalty claim waived away by referee Ricardo Dela Cruz.

Aque then thought he was through on goal to give the Junior Golden Booters a winner in stoppage time, but he was called for offside as his shot went over the bar anyway due to pressure from a Junior Archer defender.

For both schools’ coaches, the draw was a fair result and a point earned.

“Maganda yung laro ng La Salle,” said UST assistant coach David Basa. “Medyo kailangan pa namin i-improve yung team. Medyo may gusto kami i-execute today. Siyempre yung boys di dapat mag-relax. Yung mabigay namin yung intensity na kailangan for that game, dapat malabas ng boys.”

“UST is a strong contender,” said La Salle coach Nii Ayi, “Last season, they were in the finals. The season before that, we were in the finals and they kicked us from there. Going into this game, they pretty much had the same squad compared to ours.

“We were missing some players but it was a good game. They had their chances but couldn’t score. We had our chances but we couldn’t score. We will accept the draw,” added the Ghanian mentor.

Meanwhile, the first game of the afternoon saw Ateneo enjoy a resounding 3-1 victory over Claret School of Quezon City.

With the game tied at 1-1 during the halftime break, the Blue Eagles banked on John Molina’s 60th-minute strike to regain the lead and Shawn Perea’s clinical finish in the 90+10 minute to seal their first win of the campaign.

Earlier in the contest, Jose Andres Hizon opened the scoring in the 28th minute for Ateneo, which was coming off a narrow 1-0 defeat to archrival De La Salle Zobel last week and finished the week in fourth place with three points and a plus-1 GD.

“I’m so happy,” said Blue Eagles coach JP Merida. “Why? Because after, I forgot when was the last time I was the head coach of the Ateneo juniors, so after how many years, this is my first win again. I am very happy with the result even if we didn't play really good in the first half. Of course, coming from a loss, this is a good bounce back win looking toward the game against FEU-D.”

As for Claret, Filmart Tacardon equalized in the 42nd minute for the Red Roosters to also score the guest school’s first goal in UAAP history.

Southridge and Claret have yet to register points this season with the former in fifth place with a minus-4 GD and the latter in sixth place with a minus-8 GD.