Eleven Tiger, Matansa are MSL champs

The Eleven Tiger team poses for a photo after winning the Marianas Soccer League 1 championship last June 11 at the NMI Soccer Training Center in Koblerville. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Eleven Tiger is the Marianas Soccer League 1 champion, while Matansa clinched the MSL 2 title after their final games last June 11 and June 18 at the NMI Soccer Training Center in Koblerville.

Eleven Tiger took the MSL  championship, 2-1, against MP United FC, and Matansa outscored MP United FC, 7-0, in the MSL 2 finale.

Sunjoon Tenorio took care of business for Eleven Tiger as he single-handedly scored his team’s two goals. He had to work for it though as the first half came and went with no goals by Eleven Tiger. 

MP United drew first blood and had a 1-0 lead in the 29th minute by Dylan Mister, but could not cage up Eleven Tiger as they made a comeback in the second half.

With Tenorio in the roster of Eleven Tiger are Ariel Narvaez, Eunsyu Hahn, Anthony Austria, Zhixiang Lin, Akira Kadokura, Jack Unsa, Bada Lee, Brandy Onopwy, Floyd Muna, Jimmy Lin, Brandon Tenorio, Dave Mafnas, Jamin Elliot, Seho Baek, and Dane Hodges.

In Matansa’s game, they had more firepower than MP United as they bombarded their goalie right from the get go.

MP United had nothing going for them offensively and defensively as Matansa had already scored four of their goals in the first half—with one goal mistakenly shot into their own goal by MP United.

Jordan Ruiz completed the hat-trick by the 55th minute and was assisted by teammates Arif Khan and Harry Kapwich. MP United could not find a breakthrough in Matansa’s goal and succumbed to the 0-7 blowout loss.

The rest of Matansa’s team include Jacob Arkoh, Andy Chen, Amzad Khan, Lar Wongapa, Kamrul Kamrul, Song Park, Tom Linden, Gabriel Arkoh, Woynha Hwang, Houston Cuohua, Gabriel Arkoh Jr., Faycal El Karaa, Derek Cutting, and Ratol Robait.

In the battle for third place in MSL 1, Kanoa FC blanked Tan Holdings, 3-0.

Andrew Omelau weaved and bobbed through Tan Holdings’ defenses and finally found openings twice and scored late into the game—in the 57th and 69th minute.

Tan Holdings had still not scored any goals at this point and were seen losing steam, just as Kanoa struck again and scored their third goal in the 87th minute by Paul Lizama. Tan Holdings had no more gas left in their tank and went scoreless until the final minutes.

Other games of MSL 1 between Old B Bank and Shirley’s resulted in a 2-0 Old B Bank win. Panapa Peteru scored in the 17th minute, while John Canape scored in the 26th minute and that was all they wrote as Shirley’s could not retaliate.