Saipan Tribune

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Friday, March 01, 2013

Tight competition in U18 league

The boys U18 competition in the 2013 NMIFA Spring Youth League is pretty intense as none of the three teams has managed to keep a perfect record after Week 3 of the competition.

Paire Football Club eked out a 3-2 victory over MP United last Saturday at the Hopwood Junior High School Field to bounce back from a 1-4 season debut loss to Tan Holdings (Feb. 9). MP United and Tan Holdings had earlier met on Feb. 16 with the former cruising to a 4-1 triumph also at the Hopwood pitch.

Brian Lee made back-to-back goals for MP United in their game against Tan Holdings, while new recruit Tanapon Unsa and mainstay Jehn Joyner added one each. Sean Perez, who is also a new recruit for Tan Holdings, transferring from Matansa and taking over Unsa's spot, scored the lone goal for the losing squad.

After winning its season opener, MP United fell short against Paire. Mason Fruit, Shi Peng Lin, and Amami Sakano delivered a goal each for Paire, while only Unsa and Yong Jun Jeon scored for MP United.

BOYS U15

Tan Holdings 1, Shirley's 0

Tan Holdings also bounced back from a season-opening loss after edging Shirley's FC last Friday at the Oleai Sports Complex Field.

Louie Calayag scored the winning goal for Tan Holdings, which bowed to MP United, 0-2, last Feb. 15. Shirley's dropped to a 0-3 record, as it also lost to MP United in the opening of the season and fell to Paire, 0-3, last Feb. 16.

MP United 3, Matansa 3

The other boys U15 game last week saw MP United drawing Matansa FC.

MP United forced a standoff after Wataru Tajima scored the equalizer just three minutes before the game wrapped up. It was Tajima's second goal in the match, as he drew first blood for MP United at the 46th minute after his team was shut out in the first half.

Matansa led after the first 45 minutes of play, 1-0, off Euly James Ermitanio's goal in the 22nd and the striker got his second goal in the 41st for their 2-0 lead before Tajima broke the spell for MP United. Ermitanio then had a hat-trick after scoring anew in the 72nd minute, but MP United stayed in the game with Daniel Lim earning his first goal four minutes later.

GIRLS U15

Matansa 8, MP United 1

Matansa posted a lopsided win against MP United (1-2) last week at Hopwood to keep its perfect record (2-0) in the girls U15.

Lyka Sally scored three goals for Matansa, while Patricia Angela Santiago and Maile Aldrich had two apiece. Matansa's eighth goal came off MP United's miscue. Negahr Rastguiy nailed the lone goal for MP United, which recorded its first win of the season against Tan Holdings, 2-0, last Feb. 16, off Rastguiy's pair of goals.

Tan Holdings 1, Shirley's 0

After dropping its season debut, Tan Holdings recovered big time last Saturday, pulling off an upset over erstwhile undefeated Shirley's.

Chloe Salvosa canned the lone goal in the game in the first half to hand Shirley's its first loss in three games. Shirley's opened the season with a 3-0 victory over MP United (1-2) on Feb. 9 and made it back-to-back after another shutout win over Paire (0-2), 3-0, on Feb. 16.