Final Four cast complete

A Paire Football Club player kicks the ball during their elimination round game against Southern United Football Club in the girls U15 division of the 2017 NMIFA Fall Youth League at the Francisco M. Sablan Middle School Field. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The race for the championship in the girls U15 division of the 2017 NMIFA Fall Youth League is down to four teams as two more squads were eliminated last Saturday during the start of the playoff round at the Francisco M. Sablan Middle School Field.

Southern United Football Club and MP United FC remained in contention for the fall title and joined early qualifiers Shirley’s FC and Kanoa FC to the semifinals after downing their separate playoff opponents. Southern FC eased past Paire FC, 7-1, while MP United nosed out TanHoldings FC, 1-0.

Maury Zon Tybaco scored the winning goal for MP United in extra time (83rd minute). With the close victory, MP United arranged a Final Four duel against Shirley’s this Saturday at 1pm.

Shirley’s automatically moved into the semis after topping the round-robin elimination with its perfect 6-0-0 win-draw-loss record. The five-time (straight) champion also led the division in the most goals scored (34) in the preliminary and yielded the least (3) to remain the favorite to prevail in this season’s competition.

Shirley’s will be challenging the third-ranked MP United, which finished the elimination with a 3-1-2 slate. MP United collected 16 goals in six games before the playoffs and gave up the same number of goals to its opponents.

In the other semis pairing set for 2:30pm, the No. 5 ranked Southern United will be tested against No. 2 Kanoa, which will enter the postseason with a 5-0-1 record, 31 goals for and nine goals against. Southern United got only two wins in the elimination and had four losses, but was third in the most goals scored ranking with its 25 and allowed also the third least (11) in the group.

In its playoff game versus No. 4 Paire (2-1-3), Southern United got two each from Jerlyn Castillo and Jenisha Dubrall, while Sue Anne Huevos, Keisha Deleon Guerrero, and Haidee Manibusan chipped in one each. Anisa Villagomez made the lone goal for Paire, which joined Matansa FC to the showers. Matansa missed the playoffs as it placed last (0-1-5) in the team standings after the elimination round.

Meanwhile, the winners of the two semis games this weekend will collide for the division championship on Nov. 11 at 1pm.

BOYS U17
MP United 9, Kanoa 0
MP United zeroed in on the division title after blowing out Kanoa last Saturday at the Hopwood Middle School Field.

MP United now has a 7-1-0 record with two games left in the season and a win over TanHoldings this weekend will formally give the former the fall crown.

Sunjoon Tenorio had a hat-trick in MP United’s demolition of Kanoa, which dropped to the bottom of the standings with its 1-1-6 mark. Kwang Jo Lim added a pair for MP United, while Edwin Kim, Skyler Poon, Anthony Fruit, and Dai Podziewski contributed one apiece.

TanHoldings 3, Matansa 1
TanHoldings moved up to second place after beating Matansa.

Mark Esalan and Albert Bergancia scored for TanHoldings, which improved to a 5-2-1 record against the 5-0-3 of Matansa. TanHoldings’s other goal was off Matansa’s miscue, while the latter avoided the shutout loss when Joshua De Leon found the back of the net in the second half.

Paire 3, NDA 2
Paire got out of the cellar after slipping past the National Developing Academy.

Rex De Jose knocked in a pair of goals for Paire, while Logan Mister hit the other one. Joshua Galarion logged the only goal for NDA.

Paire and NDA now hold similar 2-0-6 records for a tie for fourth to fifth place in the team standings.