DEFENDING Philippines Football League (PFL) champion Ceres-Negros FC continued with its mastery of rival Kaya FC-Iloilo after emerging victorious anew in their second encounter in the ongoing season, 1-0, in rain-soaked league action on Saturday at the Aboitiz Pitch in Lipa City, Batangas.
Went up early in the contest following an OJ Porteria goal in the 16th minute, the “Busmen” maintained control and held off their opponents the rest of the way to race to their eight straight win and improve to 25 points from nine matches and a record of eight wins and a draw.
The win marked the second over Kaya following Ceres’ 2-1 win in their first encounter on July 10.
Also victorious last Saturday was Mendiola FC 1991, which beat Global Cebu FC, 4-0.
The Ceres-Kaya game had a delay start because of heavy rains and strong winds in the area.
When it finally kicked off, Kaya opened strong with solid scoring opportunities which it failed to capitalize on.
Ceres made its opponent pay for it when former Kaya player Porteria found the bottom of the net in the 16th minute off a cross from teammate Stephan Schrock to make it 1-0 for the Busmen.
But Ceres found itself a man down before the break when Sean Kane was tossed for excessively arguing with the referee. He was later joined in the stands by his coach Risto Vidakovic.
Despite surrendering a man advantage, Ceres held its own and kept frustrating Kaya for the duration of the match.
Compounding Kaya’s woes, the team saw Jovin Bedic hit with a second yellow card that led to his being sent off and with him the team’s chances of catching up.
The victory broke for Ceres a tie with Kaya (7-1-2), which is stuck with 22 points, good for second place.
Recognizing they had their opportunities but failed to ride on them, Kaya coach Noel Marcaida could not help but expressed disappointment over the result.
“The way we played, we deserved at least a point from this game. We were very unlucky not to get anything,” said Mr. Marcaida.
But he remains hopeful that they would be able to get past Ceres, saying “We still have two more games against Ceres. Those games are crucial. There’s no other option but to get a maximum six points in those games. Hopefully we can play those matches in Iloilo where we can rely on the boost from our 12th man.”
Meanwhile, Mendiola (3-1-6) improved to 10 points with a big win over tailending Global (1-0-7).
Hamed Hajimahdi (22’ and 74’) scored a brace with Ricardo Sendra (44’) and Allen Angeles (76’) a goal each to account for the 4-0 victory of Mendiola, which is currently at fifth place in the race. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
