Strong start for defending champs

MP United FC’s Eun Syu Hahn, lef, deflects the ball hit by Matansa’s Joshua De Leon, while the former’s teammate Clayton Izuka looks on during the second half of their boys U17 division game in the 2017 NMIFA Fall Youth League last Saturday at the Hopwood Middle School Field. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Reigning champions MP United Football Club and Shirley’s FC started their respective title defense bids in the 2017 NMIFA Fall Youth League by easing past their opponents last Saturday.

MP United, which won the boys U17 division crown last fall after beating TanHoldings in a shootout (4-3) during their rubber match, was pitted against Matansa in its first game this season and cruised to a 4-1 triumph at the Hopwood Middle School Field.

Skyler Poon knocked in a pair of goals for the defending champion, which is gunning for its fourth straight title in the division. Edwin Kim and the club’s new member Anthony Fruit contributed one goal each.

Fruit scored his first goal in an MP United uniform as he found the back of the net right in the third minute of the match. Kim then made it a 2-0 halftime edge for MP United after lighting up the board in the 13th minute.

At the resumption of the match, Poon drilled his two goals in a span of just two minutes with his first one coming in the 62nd minute and the last in the 64th. Matansa averted a shutout loss, thanks to Iverson Santos’ shot in the 74th minute.

Meanwhile, Shirley’s FC posted a lopsided 9-0 win over TanHoldings FC in the opening game in the girls U15 division at the Francisco M. Sablan Middle School Field.

Shirley’s, which ruled its division in the last five seasons, blew the game wide open in the second half after firing seven goals.

Katrina Costales starred in the defending champion’s crushing of TanHoldings after tallying four goals. She made three in the second half to lead Shirley’s breakaway. Costales’s first goal was recorded in the 14th minute, while the last three were logged in the 39th, 58th, and 64th.

Therize Millare and Valeria Myers chipped in two apiece, while Catherine Magat earned one. Millare drew first blood for Shirley’s with her conversion in the second minute, while her last came in the 62nd. Myers’ goals were both registered in the second half—53rd and 61st minute—while Magat made it to the board in the 47th.

In other results in the opening week of the youth league, TanHoldings got a free win in the boys U17 division, while National Development Academy nipped Kanoa, 3-2.

Ryan Relucio handed NDA, which made up of the CNMI Women’s National Team pool members and a couple of boys U18 players, the go-ahead goal in the 73rd minute. Relucio, who is part of the Teen Ayuyus that will be competing in the AFC U19 Championship 2018 Qualifiers next month, also scored NDA’s first goal (61st minute) to spark the squad’s comeback bid.

NDA faced a 0-2 deficit at the break after siblings Jim and Ian Maniago lit up the board for Kanoa in the 14th and 45th minute, respectively. Ten minutes after Relucio moved NDA within one, Guinevere Borja knocked in the equalizer for NDA before the former completed the squad’s recovery two minutes later and stole the victory from Kanoa.

While NDA labored for the victory in its season opener last weekend, TanHoldings made it to the win column without a sweat after a no-show from Paire Football Club in the second game in the division.