Eagles earn sloppy win over Typhoon

The Express Electronics Eagles earned their third win of the season in an error-filled contest with the Tinian Typhoon on Saturday morning in which the teams combined to commit 16 turnovers through four lackluster quarters of action in continuation of the Commonwealth Football League at CPA Airport Field.

Neither team found much success in the scoreless first half in which the team’s total offensive output was 65 yards, but quarterback Dane Lizama eventually lifted the Eagles to victory after the break with a pair of touchdown strikes to wide receiver Dean Camacho and tight end Charleston Aiken.

Semisi Paongo led all rushers on the day with 10 carries for 40 yards, while the league’s leader on the ground Stanley Iakopo was held to three yards on three carries and a touchdown with a set of injured ribs.

Lizama recovered from a miserable first half in which he completed one of nine passes for 29 yards to finish the day 4-for-17 with a total of 130 yards through the air. Usually the Green Machine relies on their power rushing game to steady the ship, but the stingy Typhoon defense allowed just 84 yards on 32 attempts.

Keith Nabors and company yielded a mere 65 yards in the first two quarters, but their offense was unable to capitalize as they turned the ball over to the Eagles on four out of seven of their first half possessions.

Tinian’s offense ran aground like the ferry, as their drives ended with a punt, pick, pick, turn over on downs, pick, and another pick before turning the ball over to the Eagles again on downs to close out the first half.

Head coach Pete Le’au gave the Eagles a good half time talk that rallied the troops as they roared out of the gates to score on their first possession of the second half when Lizama hit Camacho in double coverage on a 29-yard strike that he caught on the two-yard line before eluding tacklers and running in to the end zone.

They got the ball back a couple of plays later when Typhoon quarterback Juanis King fumbled the ball and Lizama went to the air to find Aiken on a 40-yard catch and run for their second score in as many drives.

King’s woes continued on the next drive as he fumbled the ball for the second time, but the defense held when Josh Mangloña sacked Lizama on fourth down. The re-energized defense didn’t get much rest as King was picked off for the fifth time in the game by Junior Ray on the next play.

As the defense did all throughout the first half and most of the second, they once again held the Eagles to a three and out, but King fumbled the ball away for the third time. Undermanned and overworked, the Typhoon eventually gave in on the next drive as Lizama handed the ball to Iakopo on a six-yard scamper into the end zone to put the Eagles up 20-0.

By the time the whistle sounded to end King’s day of misery, the QB completed 5-of-30 passes, turned the ball over on three fumbles, and threw seven interceptions. King actually completed more passes to the Eagles than his teammates, but all of the blame shouldn’t rest on his shoulders as a number of key position players were missing from the starting line-up.

Explosive deep threat Ringo Reyes, Leo and Chris Pascua, and Blake Manibusan were just a few of the starters whose seat’s on the ferry were vacant that morning, but King didn’t make any excuses for the performance saying that his team will just have to hit the practice field with a vengeance this week.