Shirley’s, Kanoa ease past foes

Shirley’s Football Club’s Katrina Costales, left, faces several Matansa defenders during their girls U15 game in the NMIFA youth league during the opening week of the division at the Francisco Mendiola Sablan Middle School Field. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Shirley’s Football Club and Kanoa FC outclassed their respective opponents to remain undefeated in the girls U15 division of the 2017 NMIFA Youth Spring League.

Kanoa topped Southern United, 5-1, in the second game at the Francisco Mendiola Sablan Middle School Field last Saturday to improve to a 3-0-0 win-draw-loss record. Shirley’s is also unbeaten after two games following a 4-1 triumph over MP United in the final match in Week 3 of the division.

Jerlyn Castillo knocked down a pair of goals for Shirley’s, while Valeria Myers and Lillian Podziewski chipped in one apiece. All of Shirley’s goals came in the second half, while MP United posted its lone goal in the opening half off a penalty kick by Francesca Bucalig in the 28th minute.

MP United’s hold on the lead was short-lived as just three minutes into the second half, Castillo drew first blood for Shirley’s to tie the match. Shirley’s went on to dominate the rest of the game with Myers giving their team the lead with her shot in the 50th minute. Seven minutes later it was Podziewski’s turn to light up the board for Kanoa, while Castillo gained her second goal in the 68th.

In the Kanoa-Southern United tiff, the former drew a hat trick from Paulyn Grace Joyce to stretch the team’s streak to three.

Joyce drilled back-to-back goals with her first in the 30th minute putting Kanoa on top. A conversion from Mariana Castro a minute later allowed Southern to force the deadlock, but that was it for the fledging club as Joyce led Kanoa’s breakaway in the second half.

The Hopwood Junior High School student registered her second goal in the 46th minute and completed the hat trick in the 67th. Ericka Santiago and Raenna Ramarui scored the two other goals for Kanoa with the former making it to the board in the 49th minute and the latter in the 58th.

Meanwhile, Matansa won the first game in the division against TanHoldings, as the latter failed to come up with enough players for the curtain-raiser.

CO-ED U12
Kanoa-1 9, Matansa 3
Kanoa-1 also gained an easy victory in the co-ed U12 division after crushing Matansa last weekend at the Hopwood pitch.

Sean Gil and Markus Toves fired two goals apiece for Kanoa-1, which remains on top of the team standings in the five-squad field with its 3-1-0 mark. Jim Kurt Maniago, Andrew Sablan, John Mark Anastacio, and Daniel Mar Pablo contributed one goal apiece in Kanoa-1’s balance offense.

Alex Megino and Chanyang Wo tallied one goal apiece for Matansa, which was credited with one goal off Kanoa-1’s miscue.

TanHoldings 9, Kanoa-2 0
TanHoldings earned a lopsided win against Kanoa-2 to keep pace with Kanoa-1 in the division headboard.

TanHoldings now has a 3-0-1 record for second place in the team standings.

John Anthony Bergancia starred in TanHoldings’ demolition of Kanoa-2 after scoring five goals, four of them came in succession. Mark Joseph Roque added a pair of goals, while Angelo Pulido chipped in one, and TanHoldings also got an own goal against the struggling Kanoa-2 defense.

Kanoa-2, whose lone goal in the game came from a TanHoldings’ error, absorbed its third loss in as many matches.

MP United 3, Matansa 2
Matansa nosed out Matansa for its second win in four games.

Garrett Weaver registered the winning goal in the 55th minute or 10 minutes after Jin Xin Wen hit the equalizer for Matansa. Jin also recorded the other goal for Matansa in the 16th minute to force the second deadlock in the game, while Richard Castro gave MP United the early lead when he found his target just three minutes into the match.

Andrew Chung then handed the driver’s seat back to MP United with his shot in the opening minute of the second half and his team kept the shaky lead for several minutes before Jin got his second goal to tie the match anew. However, MP United had the last say, thanks to Garett’s goal five minutes before the match wrapped up.