Lady Blues, Matansa Sparks win debuts

Lady Blues and Girly Flowers & Rainbows chase the ball during their game in the girls U15 division of the SSS futsal tournament last Friday at the TSL Sports Complex. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Lady Blues debuted in the holiday tournament against Girly Flowers & Rainbows last Friday at the TSL Sports Complex and recorded a 5-2 victory, while Matansa faced the former last Saturday and cruised to a 7-1 triumph.

Against Girly Flowers & Rainbows, Lady Blues got its act together in the second half to win in the opening day. Diana Maniacop showed up in the second half and scored a hat-trick, while Katherine Magat added one goal. Negahr Rastguiy drilled Lady Blue’s other goal, scoring in the first half to force a deadlock. Mark Kay Alferos tallied both goals for Girly Flowers & Rainbows.

Versus Matansa, Lady Blues failed to take the early lead in the four-team field as it was not in its usual element, making it to the board only once off Rastguiy’s goal in the first half.

The first 20 minutes of play ended with Matansa on top, 2-1, thanks to Angel Sally’s pair of goals. Angel was still at it in the last 20 minutes of the match, adding two more goals, while Lyka Sally and Pinyarat Shankweiller also hit the board in the second half to complete Matansa’s rout of Lady Blues. Matansa’s other goal in the second frame came from Lady Blues’ error.

Meanwhile, two teams won their debut games in the co-ed U12 division last Friday with the Lil Rascals edging Sisig Blue, 5-4 and Team Betde outclassing Orange Rangers.

Mark Esalan powered Lil Rascals to the close win in the first co-ed U12 match after drilling all of his team’s goals. He scored the first three in the opening half to help Lil’ Rascal match Sisig Blue’s output. Rintaro Miyawaki made the twin goals for Sisig Blue in the first half, while Eun Syu Hahn tallied the other one.

In the second half, Sisig Blue failed to contain Esalan, who added a pair to secure the victory for Sisig Blue. Miyawaki got the lone goal for Sisig Blue in the second half.

Thaipi Austria duplicated Esalan’s five goals in Team Betde’s win over Orange Crushers. Austria was unstoppable in the second half, scoring four goals. He teamed up with John Michael Rojas in giving team Betde a debut win, as the latter added two goals in the first half.

The first half wrapped up with Team Betde holding on to a shaky 3-2 lead, as Orange Crushers remained in contention after getting one goal apiece from Sebastian Manabat and Jaydee Jose. However, the Orange Crushers failed to steal the win in the second half as Merrick Toves’ two goals and John Mark Anastacio’s one still fell short of matching Austria’s four.

Besides the co-ed U12 and girls U15 divisions games, a boys U15 match was also played last Friday, but results of the Orange Crushers-Astig Futsal tiff were unavailable at press time, as well as the three other games scheduled last Saturday.