Destroyer lays waste to competition

Team Destroyer once again proved as lethal as its name and romped away with the summer season championship of the 2004 CNMI Billiard League.

The group of pool sharks, led by co-captains Luis Fajardo and Willy Roman and team members Rolly Villanueva, Lito Cabrera, Howard Mallari, Robert Sanciangco, and Rex Reyes, received their three-foot tall championship trophy as well as individual trophies Wednesday night during the league’s season-ending awards banquet held at Club Taboo.

It was the second straight season the team took home the overall championship of the 2004 CNMI Billiard League.

But it was not at all an easy journey for Team Destroyer, which played possum the first half of the season before finding its stride during the stretch run to best 11 other teams for the title.

Destroyer strung together back-to-back 10-point matches and followed it up with 8- and 9-point weeks that proved enough to solidify its hold of first place.

For the record, Destroyer wound up with 90 points after the 12-week season to utterly frustrate early leader Da X Terminators, which finished only 2 points behind with a score of 88.

In fact, the team made up of league MVP Henry Sasaki, Frank Pangelinan, Patrick Cepeda, Mii Tekapua, and Larry Guerrero, still had a chance to overtake Destroyer going into the last week of the competition. But bad luck hit the team and it played poorly in the final week kissing its comeback hopes goodbye.

Third place went to No Mercy, which wound up with a total of 87 points. No Mercy players are Senen Pangilinan, Joey Lucido, Roman Rodriguez, Rowell Mariano, and James Carbrera.

Young Guns and Pool Junkies finished in fourth and fifth places with scores of 82 and 75 points, respectively.

Making up Young Guns are Jerry Soriano, Edward Armia, Primo Ferrera, Ken Philips, Boyet Sequioco, and Richard Celestine. Players for Junkies, on the other hand, are Roger Espiritu, Juancho Mendoza, Jean Cadag, Frank Codog, Bert Mettao, and Rene Pe.

The rest of the participating teams, and their scores in parenthesis, are as follows: Pacific Media Dragons (66); MBI Cheetahz (63); Hyatt Troops (58); Marines (56); Team Artemis (54); Da First Timers (52); and Team Palau (33).

“It was a total team effort. We don’t really have the best players in the league but all of us can play and in the end that proved to be the difference,” said Fajardo.

For his part, Roman said the players didn’t let the slow start of the team affect from them from attaining their goal of repeating as champions. “We never panicked. We continued to play to our strengths and just kept on encouraging each other.”

Fajardo added that what probably helped them win the title again was their discipline and commitment to practice. “Luckily I have a pool table at home and the whole team goes there every weekend to practice.”

Fajardo and Roman also thanked sponsors Club Taboo, MARPAC, and Micronesian Brokers, Inc. for all their support this past season.

In the individual awards, Sasaki took the best player of the season plum after getting the most votes from players and referees. Sasaki also tied Roger Espiritu of Pool Junkies for the highest rating for the season.

Bagging the Most Improved Player award was Sanciangco, who won 11 games during the season after only taking three games the previous one.

The CNMI Billiard League also honored Mei Hua Jin of Marines for being the only lady player to join the summer season.