Fair Play: SHS Eagles surprise all in Milo football

(This is my Fair Play column for Aug. 30)
ONE question that burned in my mind going into the Milo Little Olympics football finals between Don Bosco Technological Center and Sacred Heart School-Jesuit was this--when was the last time Don Bosco conceded a goal in open play in a Milo tournament?

In the national finals in 2011, DBC beat Luzon, 24-0, NCR, 15-0, and Mindanao, 5-0. In the regional finals, they conceded two in a 4-2 win over Abellana National School but that was by a shootout. And in this year's regional finals, DBC shut out USPF, 6-0,



Iloilo, 3-0, and scored a last-minute stunner against Springdale in the semifinals, courtesy of Moiselle Alforque.

And against the Eagles, it seems DBC was going to get another shutout.  While their fans chanted, "Go Don Bosco Go," they were going at it before the Eagles hit paydirt in their first attack--Matthew Minoza hit the bar in the 11th and Carlo Villamor heading in the rebound.

But three minutes in, DBC fans learned they had no reason to panic when Christian Paez introduced himself to Eagles keeper Kyle Adima, via a 40-yard free kick that slipped straight to the goal between Adima's hands.

It was just an equalizer but a goal like that can shoot a keeper's confidence to hell, and DBC got the momentum and more. My notes from the remainder of the half until the last two minutes of the game, covered mostly the DBC half of the notebook as the defending champions threw everything plus the kitchen sink at the Eagles.

There was Yves Caballero, who'd single-handedly get past everybody on a whim but kept misfiring from close range.  And when he got fouled, there was Paez, again, from 30 yards, testing a still-jittery Adima.

But something weird begain to happen.  All those free kicks resulted into easy saves for Adima and he got his confidence back, and DBC, which at close to midnight the day before had a tough 3-0 win against DBC, had two players cramping out.

Then in a rare counterattack, Villamor headed in the go-ahead goal and just like that, the “Go Don Bosco” chants were replaced by “Champion na!” screams from a small but equally spirited Eagles group.

GREETINGS! Today’s greetings is for the reason why I’m such a good boy, my wife Rora, who turns a year older today. She’s the reason because she also has an older brother, Police Sr. Inspector Randi Patino, who also celebrates his birthday today.
(www.cebufootball.blogspot.com)