UAAP: Green Booters overcome over UE, Lady Booters fall to UST

Another weekend of football took place at the Ateneo Moro Lorenzo Football Field with the DLSU Men’s Football Team coming out victorious over the UE Red Warriors in a 1-0 victory last February 8. Meanwhile, their counterparts from the Women’s Team fell to the UST Tigresses with a similar scoreline of 1-0 last February 7.

Climbing the ladder

During their first encounter earlier this season, the Men’s Team overpowered the Red Warriors with a final score of 5-1. This time around, the Taft-based squad came out on top with a 1-0 outcome. Gerald Layumas scored the only goal of the match in the 13th minute of the game off a corner kick by Nathan Alquiros.

The Red Warriors started the match with an aggressive pace and kept DLSU’s defensive line on their toes. UE almost scored in the fifth minute with three straight attempts but the ball was eventually cleared out of harm’s way by goalkeeper Raphael De Guzman. However, the momentum was quickly captured by DLSU after Layumas’ early goal.

Furthermore, second-year defender Nico Villacin was fielded by Coach Hans Smit as a striker for the first half of action in hopes to utilize Villacin’s size against the smaller UE defenders.

The second half kicked off with UE desperately looking for a goal of their own. The Red Warriors momentarily took advantage on ball possessions early and pressed on La Salle’s defense, making it difficult for DLSU to clear the ball out. With a forward pass from Alquiros, mid-game substitute Chuck Uy managed to escape his defender as well as the goalkeeper, but his shot went barely wide outside of the right post. From then on, the La Salle defense held up against against the last efforts of UE to tie the game and kept the final score at one 1 to nil.

“I’ve always been mixing it up. Nobody else knows who’s going to play… Finishing is our main problem ever since. The defense, goalkeeper, and midfield we don’t have a problem. We’re fluid there, it’s just the finishing,” commented DLSU head coach Hans Smit after the game.

Edged out

It was an unfortunate result for the DLSU Women’s football team as they lost another close game against the UST Tigresses. As early as the starting minutes of the match, the Tigresses kept formulating attack after attack, which gave DLSU goalkeeper, Erika Turtur, a workout early in the game. Throughout the first half, the Tigresses kept the pressure on the La Salle defense as they threw one attack to another, but to no avail.

The Lady Booters did come close to scoring in the 30th minute, though, but it was denied by the bar of the goal. From that point on, DLSU started pressing the attack towards their foes and even got close to a goal courtesy of Hodges’ on-target attempt, which was saved by the keeper. The half ended with UST having the possession, and as the half came to a close, the game remained scoreless.

As the second half started, both teams had equal attempts on goal. But as the game reached the 60th minute, a lapse in the DLSU defense was all it took for UST’s Pearl Aguilar to score and take the lead for the UST Tigresses. It didn’t end there. Shortly afterwards, UST began seeking for a second goal, almost scoring on an opportunity after beating the La Salle defenders.

With time running down, the footballers from Taft Avenue were in desperate search for a late equalizer. At the 90th minute mark, they had a chance to tie the game with a corner kick but unfortunately, they were unable to convert. The match ended with UST victorious over the Lady Booters with a 1-0 scoreline.

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With only one game left for the Women’s Team and three remaining matches for the Men’s Team in the elimination round, both teams are still in prime position to reach the playoffs. The former will look to capture a finals spot as they are set to square off against the UP Lady Maroons on February 21, Saturday, at the Moro Lorenzo Football Field in Ateneo.

On the other hand, the Men’s Team will try to claim the top seed in their division as they go head-to-head with the AdU Soaring Falcons on Sunday, February 15, at the FEU-Diliman Football Field.