GIO Pabualan unleashed a spectacular effort that helped Far Eastern University draw 1-1 against University of Santo Tomas, earning them a Final Four ticket on Sunday in the UAAP Season 85 Men’s Football Tournament at UP Diliman Football Field.
Pabualan scored the equalizer for the Tamaraws in the 45+3 minute with a powerful left-foot shot from outside the box. His goal allowed FEU to raise their tally to 19 points, securing third place in the table with five wins, four draws, and two losses and entry into the postseason.
Despite the result giving them a second straight Final Four stint, coach Vince Santos was far from happy with how his players performed on the pitch.
“Disappointing,” said Santos. “I don’t think we played our game. We got to give it to UST also for playing hard, but I felt this was not FEU’s play today.”
The Golden Booters started the game brightly as Kyler Escobar took advantage of Karl Absalon’s faulty backpass to break the deadlock in the 21st minute. UST then tried to score a winner in the second half, but it was not meant to be as the España school failed to convert multiple chances right at the end.
UST remained in fourth place with 17 points behind five wins, two draws, and five losses.
The Golden Booters now need certain results to go their way.
They hope that University of the East, which is playing against Adamson University at this moment, and University of the Philippines, which will play against FEU this Thursday at 4:30 p.m., to not win their final matches to make it into the Final Four.
