Exactly one week ago, the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons and the University of Santo Tomas Golden Booters fought out a competitive and entertaining 1-1 draw.
Sunday morning at the Far Eastern University-Diliman field, though, was a totally different story as the Fighting Maroons demolished the Golden Booters 4-0 to temporarily regain their place on top of the UAAP Season 80 Men’s Football Tournament standings.
UP’s winning start to the second round gives them 20 points in the league table while UST is stuck at 3rd place with 14 points.
“This has to be our best game this season,” said UP coach Anto Gonzales. “Execution-wise it was on top of the priority which we weren’t able to achieve in our game against UST last week. That was the key today execution and really the work rate of the midfielders.”
It was late in the first period when State U stamped its class on UST. Fidel Tacardon struck past Golden Booters goalkeeper Zaldy Abraham Jr to open the scoring at the 39th minute. Already a goal down, the circumstances got worse for UST as Steven Anotado was ejected for punching Christian Lapas three minutes later after the latter fouled the former.
The Fighting Maroons made their numerical advantage count in first half stoppage time when JB Borlongan doubled State U’s lead to all but seal the game for Gonzales’ wards. With a 2-0 edge at the break, things were bound to get better for UP come the second half.
Gonzales emphasized to his players to keep their feet on the ground and not to allow the Golden Booters a chance to get back in the contest. “UST is a fighting team. When their backs are against the wall, they really push hard. That’s what I reminded the boys about that UST will fight so we have to continue working and we have to continue focusing on the objectives.”
Tacardon turned from goalscorer to provided as he made the crucial assist for Karl Bugayong. Bugayong latched on Tacardon’s pass and directed the ball home to hand UP its third goal just two minutes after the restart.
UP coasted but maintained its intensity against UST despite the three-goal lead. Striker Kintaro Miyagi was brought down in the Golden Booters box and Lapas dispatched the spot-kick to make it 4-0 at the 58th minute.
“I think for this game, defensively and offensively, we executed very well. The past three games we weren’t doing what we planned. There were just spurts but I think in this game we were very consistent. Moving forward that’s what we aim to do being consistent and executing very well,” concluded Gonzales.
The two schools shall next play on March 15 at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila. State U plays University of the East at 2:00 PM while UST goes us against FEU afterwards at 4:00 PM.
