A new Cesafi champ


THE UNIVERSITY of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) is Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) football champion no more.

Its four-year reign in the Cesafi ended after the University of the Visayas Greenbooters fulfilled its three-year goal with a 4-0 rout of the champion in the finals yesterday at the Sacred Heart School-Jesuit.

UV is only the second football champ in Cesafi as USJ-R took the first four titles.

In the battle for third, the University of San Carlos surged to a 3-0 half time lead before holding on for a 3-2 win over the spiraling University of Southern Philippines Foundation.

USP, one of the teams able to beat USJ-R this year, lost its last three matches after its 2-0 win over USJ-R.

"This is the fruit of a three-year labor. It was three years ago when we took these players in at UV after they graduated from high school," an ecstatic UV coach
Eddie Buot said, referring to the workman Junard Aguilar, who netted 10 goals this season including the opener yesterday, midfielders Julius Acre and Martin Bontia, whose controlled play in the middle led to most of UV's goals, and defenders Ivan Dimco and Josaphat Sacil.

Aguilar, who missed the semifinals due to tonsillitis, struck in the 22nd exploiting a miscue by the defense and using his speed and dribbling skills to find an opening.

USJ-R kept pushing in the second half, but Jade Paghubasan rarely found an opening.

Julius Acre's header off a corner in the 70th gave their defense breathing space and after the goal, USJ-R seemed to have lost its will to win as tempers flared during the match.

Fortunately, no untoward incidents happened.

It was such an unfortunate day for USJ-R that in the 75th, a goalmouth scramble had the ball roll off keeper Frederick Alazas' back, flirting near the goal line before getting cleared.

"Malas jud, di gyud para ila," a USJ-R fan lamented. (Tough luck. The game is not really for them.)

Kurt Acre made it 3-0 in the 85th on a penalty, then capped his performance in the 88th with a cross that got deflected by a USJ-R defender into the goal.

"This is our belated gift to sir Eddie (Gullas) who had his birthday last Oct. 13," Buot said.

What a fitting gift it is.

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