Shirley’s FC takes early lead; Kanoa wins

Independents Football Club’s Amy Furnare is followed by two Kanoa Football Club defenders during the first half of their game in the Women’s M-League last Saturday at the Oleai Sports Complex Field. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

With its 2-0 record, Shirley’s took the early lead in the fall season of the seven-team competition, while MP United is at the bottom of the field with its 0-2 slate.

Alexa Vergara powered Shirley’s FC to the easy win over MP United, scoring a hat-trick in the first game of the league’s Week 2 matches. The Marianas High School student drilled all three goals in the second half with her first two recorded in the opening minutes of the final frame and the last one in the 75th minute.

Vergara also canned three goals in Shirley’s FC’s 8-1 trashing of Kanoa FC in the league’s opening week last Oct. 11. She teamed up with Jeraldine Castillo in lifting Shirley’s FC to the easy win, as the latter also earned a hat-trick, while Dianne Pablo and Michaela Gariguez scored the two other goals.

Castillo registered back-to-back goals for Shirley’s, hitting her first in the 12th minute to tie the match after Irish Pagarao drew first blood for Kanoa one minute earlier. Castillo’s second goal came in the 21st and Shirley’s closed out the first half with four more, three of them were courtesy of Vergara and the other one from Pablo. Castillo also logged the first goal for Shirley’s in the second half (54th) while Gariguez made it to the board in the 69th minute, and Kanoa’s drought continued in the entire final frame.

In other results in the first two weeks of the Women’s M-League, Kanoa FC prevailed in the second game last Saturday, downing Independents FC, 3-1.

Pagarao starred in Kanoa’s first win this season after scoring two straight goals in the first half. Jeralyn Castillo converted the other goal for Kanoa FC, as she also lit up the board in the opening half, while Amy Furnare registered the lone goal for IFC.

Before bowing to Kanoa, IFC came from a 1-0 win over Matansa Football Club in the league’s opening week. Terra Allen scored in IFC’s season-debut win.

Meanwhile, Matansa was scheduled to play its second game last Saturday against the debuting Paire FC, but the match was reset due to the unplayable field. Tan Holdings FC drew a bye in Week 2 after earning a 2-0 victory over MP United in Week 1. May Kay Alferos and Jennifer Perena scored one goal apiece in Tan Holding’s win over MP United.

MP United hopes to barge into the win column this Saturday when it faces Kanoa FC in the third and last game in Week 3 at 8pm. In the first game at 4pm, Shirley’s will duel Paire FC, while in the second tiff at 6pm, Tan Holdings will collide against Matansa.