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Steele leads Golden Boot winners
MP United Football Club’s Richard Steele left a mark in his last playing season in the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association Youth League after winning the Golden Boot award in the boys U15 division.
Steele, whose family is leaving the island this summer, collected 23 goals in the double-round robin competition and had his best output (7) in a single game when they hammered Kanoa Football Club-2 (14-0).
He is the only player in his age group to earn 20-plus goals. The MP United forward hit the board in all of MP United’s 10 regular matches, including a pair in their 4-1 triumph over Kanoa Football Club-1 that forced the playoff match for the division title. In the rubber, the Mt. Carmel School student also drilled the pair of goals for MP United, which unfortunately fell short in its championship bid as Kanoa-1 eked out a 3-2 victory.
Steele was way ahead of Kanoa-1’s Jaydee Jose in the Golden Boot race, as the former logged only 16 goals. Shirley’s Football Club’s Gabriel Arkoh (14), and siblings Markus (14) and Merrick Toves (13) made it to the Top 5. Other players who delivered 10-plus goals this season were TanHoldings’ Oliver Fajardo (13), Kanoa-1’s Jim Kurt Maniago (13), and Shirley’s Hakib Hassan (11).
Meanwhile, other Golden Boot awardees were Shirley’s Jayvin Bisek, MP United’s Sunjoon Tenorio, and Kanoa’s Sharmaine Francisco and Paulyn Joyce.
Joyce registered the most goals in the league, as she tallied 34 in the girls U19 division and led Kanoa to an undefeated season. Joyce finished ahead of MP United’s Guine Borja (24) and Francisco (18).
In the girls U16, Francisco was the runaway winner of the Golden Boot award after posting 30 goals. Southern United Football Club’s Keisha Deleon Guerrero and Joyce were ranked second and third after earning 17 and 10, respectively.
Tenorio edged TanHoldings’ Mark Esalan for the top honors in the boys U18 division with the former getting 14 goals against the latter’s 13. There was also a close battle in the Golden Boot award for the co-ed U12 division with Bisek winning by only one goal, 7-6, against TanHoldings’ Monico Claridades.
