Whispering Palms completes IFL sweep

Whispering Palms swept the 2013-2014 NMIFA/PSS Interscholastic Football League as its boys team also prevailed in the finals against Saipan International School, 1-0, last Saturday at the Hopwood Junior High School Field.

Sunjoon Tenorio’s goal in the 27th minute lifted Whispering Palms to the title win, the school’s second on the same day, as its girls team had earlier defeated San Antonio Elementary School in the other finals match of the weekend.

Whispering Palms advanced to the finals after topping the round-robin playoffs last week at the Hopwood pitch. It cruised to a 4-0 victory over San Antonio Elementary School in the first round match last Tuesday and had another convincing win against 2012 champion William S. Reyes Elementary School last Wednesday. Then in the third round last Thursday, Whispering Palms won the finals peek against SIS, 1-0. The Geckos had earlier prevailed in their first two playoff games, shutting out San Antonio last Tuesday, 4-0, and thwarting WSR last Wednesday, 1-0.

With SIS and Whispering Palms surviving the playoffs, they arranged an all-Northern Group finale. Whispering Palms finished on top of the Northern Group with its 4-1-0 win-draw-loss record and notched the first playoff berth in the division. The Terns scored 24 goals—the most in the group—and gave up only three in the round-robin regular season.

SIS placed second in the Northern Group with its 3-2-1 slate and collected nine goals. Other schools entered in the Northern Group were Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary School (3-1-1), Oleai Elementary School (2-0-3), Garapan Elementary School (1-0-4), and Mount Carmel School (0-0-5).

In the Southern Group, WSR finished ahead of the pack with its perfect 5-0-0 card, while San Antonio came in second with its 4-0-1 mark to move into the playoffs. Koblerville Elementary School (4-0-1), San Vicente Elementary (3-0-3), Kagman Elementary School (2-0-3), and Dandan Elementary School (0-0-5) were eliminated.

Besides ruling its group, San Antonio also earned the most goals in the regular season with 28 and allowed its foes to score only three. In the playoffs, San Antonio failed to maintain its momentum and settled for the third place trophy after beating WSR in the consolation match last Saturday.

The trophies for the Top 4 finishers were handed out in a brief awards ceremony last Saturday afternoon. The organizing Northern Mariana Islands Football Association awarded trophies to top individual performers, too. Tenorio was given the Golden Boot award, while SIS’ Clayton Izuka took the Golden Glove honors.

Tenorio and the rest of Whispering Palms players were also presented with the perpetual trophy, which was previously won by Koblerville (2008), Saipan Community School (2009 and 2010), GTC (2011), and WSR (2012). Joining Tenorio on the champion team were Justin Albuen, Parker Callier, Cole Chambers, Kaden and Max Chruch, Spencer Dickinson, Anthony Fruit, Steven Goodwin, Gang Min Kim, Allan Lee, Nolan Mariano, Logan and Blake Mister, Beckham Richards, Sam Ryu, Rex Tavera Jon Villagomez, and Dominic Zedde. Mark Epley and Jeff Race are Whispering Palms’ coaches.