Guam All-Star Team dominates

The CNMI/Knights’ Lawrence Laniyo tackles a Guam All-Star Team running back, while two more CNMI/Knights players get ready to provide help defense during the second quarter of their matua division game in the 3rd Marianas Friendship Bowl held last Saturday at the CPA Airport Field. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The Guam All-Star Team capitalized on its experience to cruise past the CNMI/Knights, 44-0, in the matua division game in the 3rd Marianas Friendship Bowl held last Saturday at the CPA Airport Field.

The visiting squad scored seven touchdowns and a couple of conversions to post the convincing win and made up for its close 12-6 triumph when the CNMI vs Guam game in the matua division (10 to 14 age group) was held in 2015. Evan Fernandez, Caiyle Gogue, Eugene Arriola, Noah Medler, Darren Cepeda, Travon Jacobs, Annaliah Quichocho, and Laethian Gumaban earned the TDs for the Guam All-Stars.

“We don’t expect to have this big a winning margin. Actually, we don’t know what to expect from the game and from the CNMI Team because we’re not familiar with how the team plays and we only knew they are a new squad,” offensive coordinator Greg Jacobs said in an interview with Saipan Tribune after the game.

“With that, our mindset was to treat the match as if it is a championships game, so the boys really went all out and showed a lot of intensity. We executed our plays well,” said Jacobs, whose players are selected from the various villages/schools in Guam and from the teams seeing action in the island’s competitive youth league.

“These players have been playing in a while so definitely the experience worked to their advantage. Some of them are teammates in schools and in the Guam youth league so they are familiar with each other’s game,” the elder Jacobs added.

While the Guam All-Stars have been into the sport and organized leagues for years, the opposite can be said to the CNMI/Knights side, which was formed just last year with players coming mostly from Mt. Carmel School

“It is very understandable to see a young team like them struggle in this game. But, there are a lot of promising talents. We saw kids who really have the ability to excel if given training and exposure,” Jacobs said.

“The best thing to do is to continue to play and nurture these talents. If possible, build a league, start to 3 to 4 teams and have them play at least once a week,” the Guam All-Stars offensive coordinator added.

Meanwhile, Knights coach John Blanco acknowledged the squad’s lack of experience cost them the match, but said despite the downfall his players are determined to train harder and keep playing.

“The CNMI Matua Team consisted mostly of players that never played before, including a good number of 10 to 12 year olds. Despite the loss, the kids are excited about the prospect of playing more football and I am happy to see that many have developed a new found passion for the sport of football,” Blanco said.

Besides the matua game, Guam and the Knights also played in the high school match and results will be reported this week.