What a statement of intent.
The De La Salle Lady Archers stunned the current champions, Far Eastern University Lady Tamaraws, 3-0 in the UAAP Season 78 Women’s Football Tournament at the McKinley Hill Stadium. Kyla Inquig, (10′), Nicole Andaya (13′) and Sara Castañeda (63′ penalty) were the scorers for La Salle.
The Lady Archers dominated the first half of the game. While Lady Tamaraw Jovelle Suderia may have had the first attempt in the game, it was the Lady Archers who had the dream start. Andaya raced through the right flank and penetrated the FEU box. Her shot went into the goal from a tight angle at the 10th minute. Three minutes later, it was Inquig who pounced on the loose ball from a set-piece situation to double La Salle’s lead.
It became an open game from then on, but both teams struggled to create goalscoring chances. The Lady Tamaraws had an attempt in the 17th minute, while Castañeda had a chance of her own when she pressed FEU’s center back but she failed to test goalkeeper Kim Parina.
Regine Metillo had a chance to score via a direct free kick but her shot went wide left of the FEU goal. Castañeda then had another chance a couple of minutes later but it also went wide. Perhaps La Salle should have finished the game off at half time, but Kyla Inquig failed to put the ball at the back of the net when she was inside the FEU box and in a position which screamed “GOAL”.
Castañeda forced a save from Parina deep into stoppage time. At halftime, it was La Salle 2 – 0 FEU.
La Salle continued where they left off with two chances early in the second half. Metillo had another free kick saved by Parina and Shannon Arthur shot wide of the goal in FEU’s box after showcasing her good technique. Inquig joined in when her shot outside the box was easily caught by Parina.
The Lady Archers finally had the third goal they craved when Parina committed a foul inside the Lady Tamaraws penalty box. Castañeda stepped up to take the penalty and converted it to give La Salle a priceless 3-0 lead over FEU at the 63rd minute.
FEU tried to respond but their free kick went wide in the upper right corner at the 70th minute. It felt like both teams were just going through the motions as La Salle had full control of the game. Arthur had a free kick saved by Parina while Mary Duran also had her shot saved by Parina when the former was through on goal.
Meryll Ledesma made Parina save FEU again late into the game and La Salle held on with a massive win over FEU.
La Salle coach Hans-Peter Smit was full of sobriety after the win. “Like I said in the beginning, it can only get better. It just so happens FEU was off today. We just pounced on it. I just told my girls to start stronger than them in the first half. We scored two goals in a span of three minutes. It helped out and gave a boost to the girls. They held on. I just said we have to score one more goal to break their backs. After we scored the third goal, they were going down already one by one. They’re also tired. I can say we are in a better condition than them. That’s one big factor we were able to run.”
