By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter
KAYA FC made it a winning return to Iloilo just as league-leading and defending champion Ceres-Negros FC continued with its tear in Philippines Football League fixtures on Sunday.
After spending some time in its PFL campaign away from home, Kaya had a triumphant outing back on its home field, surviving a late scare from visiting Philippine Air Force FC to book the 2-1 win at the Iloilo Sports Complex.
Played sans key stalwarts Jordan Mintah, Alfred Osei, and Masanari Omura in the lineup and saw goalkeeper Ace Villanueva forced off the field after a collision with an Air Force striker, Kaya struggled to exact its authority over the visitors all game long but did just enough to get the full three points that go with the win.
Connor Tagcani opened the scoring for the hosts in the 38th minute.
Three minutes later, he was part of his team’s second goal as a facilitator, delivering a cross to teammate Kenshiro Daniels, who in turn finished from close range to give Kaya a 2-0 lead just before the break.
But Air Force would have the last say in the opening half as Alex Elnar managed to score for the Airmen to cut their deficit into half, 2-1, at halftime.
With the outcome still wide open, the two teams scrambled to seize the momentum at the restart.
Both teams had their solid chances to advance their push with goals but could not complete them.
Air Force piled on the pressure as the final whistle drew closer, and with a minute left in regulation, it thought it had its equalizer.
From a corner kick, the deep delivery was thumped in at the back post. But while the players were celebrating, the assistant referee had his flag up, having witnessed an infraction in the lead-up.
With the goal disallowed, Kaya held on to the 2-1 win.
The win pushed Kaya’s record to 40 points from a record of 13 wins, a draw and three losses while Air Force (3-2-15 and 11 points), with the loss, slumped to its second defeat in a row.
CERES BOOKS 16TH WIN
Meanwhile at the Biñan Football Stadium, Ceres (16-1-0) raced to its 16th straight victory in the ongoing PFL tournament, beating Stallion Laguna FC, 2-0.
Bienvenido Maranon and Robert Lopez Mendy provided the goals for the “Busmen” in a highly contested match.
The two teams had it tight in the opening half, fighting to a nil-nil count by the halftime break.
Ceres, however, scored back to back in the early goings of the second half to swing the tide in its favor.
Mr. Maranon found the bottom of the net in the 51st minute with Mr. Lopez Mendy seconding him two minutes later.
Stallion tried to make up for the goals the rest of the way but Ceres would not allow it to on its way to the victory that pushed it to 49 points, nine clear of second-running Kaya in the race.
Ceres just needs at least three more wins to secure the PFL title for a third straight year.
With the defeat, Stallion dropped to 8-5-5 with 29 points, good for third place to date.
Also on Sunday Green Archers United FC and Global Cebu FC fought to a 2-2 count at the Aboitiz Pitch in Lipa, Batangas, to get a point each.
