CIS succumbs to injuries, loses Isac bid

CEBU International School (CIS) stumbled in its quest to win the International Schools Athletic Conference (Isac) boys football crown as the injury-plagued team lost to Brent Baguio, 1-3, in yesterday morning’s semifinals.

Only nine players showed up for CIS at the start of the game, with the rest nursing various injuries.

"Grabe gyud tong three games namo yesterday (Saturday) and slide pa kaayo ang ground, na injured ako players, and worse, we had no substitutes," CIS head coach Joshua Fegidero said.

Last Saturday, CIS played and won all its three games to finish second in the six team event behind European International School (EIS, with a 4-1 record. Their lone defeat was against EIS, 2-1 in their first game. Saturday's steady downpour also rendered the grass muddy and slippery.

Among the players missing yesterday were Miguel Atienza, and defensive cog Peter Watson while Rafa Aboitiz played with an injury.

“Gamit si Peter sa depensa, while Rafa wasn’t really much of a factor in the game,” said Fegidero, a former RP team player.

In the semifinal, CIS found themselves trailing 3-0 in the first half and wasn't able to string a few passes to be a threat offensively.

"Nau-nahan mi nila, so we played defensive already," Fegidero said. Michael Sharpe managed to sneak a goal in the final 10 minutes of the game, but it was already too late for CIS as Brent Baguio went on to the finals, where they lost 1-5 to EIS.

"Sayang, kaya tani ang EIS," Fegidero said.

CIS managed to salvage third place, winning 5-4 on shoot outs after Brent Subic bungled a shot. For the Isac meet, organizers decided the contest for third place be a shoot-out to save time as some of the players had to catch their planes back home.

After their boys team's disappointment, the CIS girls will have their chance to make up for it when they play in the Isag girls football event in Baguio this March.