From league cellar to stellar

The Marianas Eye Institute Eyeballers pulled off the upset of the season Saturday morning as they took the fire our of the UMDA Hot Salsa in a 3-1 victory during the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association Women’s League semifinals at the American Memorial Park.

After finishing the regular season without a win, the Eyeballers shocked the Salsa by flooding the field with forwards in the first half to take an early lead 1-0 lead when Becca Rath found the back of the net.

Talk of a possible upset began to circulate among the spectators as the blue crew added to its lead when Divya Sharma gave the Eyeballers a 2-0 advantage early in the second half. The excitement continued to build when Lindsay Davis added another goal to increase the Eyeballers lead over Hot Salsa to 3-0 with plenty of time remaining on the clock.

Midway through the second half, the Eyeballers continued to seal their lead with solid defense and pressing offense but the Salsa eventually found its footing late in the half and threatened a comeback when Emily Gries kicked a low laser to the left hand side of the net, 3-1.

Minutes dwindled down to seconds and when referee Mark McDonald’s whistle blew, the Eyeballers erupted with cheers and hugs after punching their tickets to next week’s NMIFA Women’s League Finals.

Fiesta Femme Fatales 2, Mamma Mia’s 1

Two talented teams gave the crowd all of the soccer they could handle as the Fiesta Resort and Spa Femme Fatales and Saipan Grand Hotel Mamma Mia’s needed penalty kicks to determine NMIFA’s second championship contender.

Regulation time and a five-minute overtime period were not enough to settle the score so the teams relied on their stars to get them to the Promised Land. Standout Morgan Rose was the first to score for the Femme Fatales, but her Mamma Mia’s counterpart Sarah Helbert evened the count at one apiece through three shooters. The final kicker hit pay dirt when goalkeeper Maria Ornes went right on TeMary Gramlich for the game winner.

The Femme Fatales blasted the Mamma Mia’s earlier in the season by scoring a boatload of goals but the white and purple players gave them all they could handle on Saturday morning.

After neither team managed to score a goal in the 25 minutes, the Mamma Mia’s broke open the goose egg when Laila Qudsi squeaked one past the keeper midway though the second half to give her team a 1-0 lead.

Rose rallied her troops following the goal and soon thereafter found the back of the net for the Femme Fatales to even the score at one apiece. Despite a number of close calls, neither squad was able to break the tie and the game went to overtime.

The season comes to a close this Saturday, Dec. 9, when the Femme Fatales face the Eyeballers in the championship game at 9:30am followed by the battle for third place between Hot Salsa and Mamma Mia’s.