Kaya wards off Army, joins Loyola Meralco at UFL lead

MANILA, Philippines - Kaya FC turned back a fiesty Army Fritz & Macziol despite playing 10-man in the second half as it pulled off a 2-0 victory to seize a share of the lead with Loyola Meralco Sparks in the First Division of the United Football League at the University of Makati field.

Japanese Masanari Omura opened up the scoring with a 33th minute goal and Ivory Coast’s Eric Dagroh quickly followed it up with a goal of his own two minutes later to go into half time with a 2-0 lead.

But Dagroh, who scored the LBC-backed booters’ first goal of the season in a 1-0 win over reigning League and Cup champion Air Force Phoenix on opening day last Jan. 14 at the Rizal Memorial pitch, was sent off on the 62nd minute for a red card he was assessed. That left a gaping hole in Kaya’s attack.

The Armymen, who were coming off a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over rival Navy Red Juice also at UMak last Wednesday, couldn’t capitalize on their chance though and failed to rally back from that deficit, allowing Juan Cutillas’ chargers to escape with the important win.

Kaya, one of the pre-season favorites to challenge for the title, thus jumped from a share of No. 3 with Global FC to a share of No. 1 with Loyola but the Sparks, headed by the immensely popular and talented brother tandem of Phil and James Younghusband, had better goal difference of 16 against just six by the former to stay at the helm.

“We’re slowly getting to the place we wanted, we just need to keep on working and playing hard,” said Cutillas, a Spanish and many-time national team coach who has been living in the country for a long time.

Army capped its gruelling three-game schedule in six days with a win against two losses to remain at No. 5 with eight points on two triumphs, the same number of draws and three defeats.

Stallion Gilligan’s FC skidded to No. 3 with 13 points while Global FC, which has a chance to snare a share of the lead if it wins over Navy Red Juice at 6 p.m. tonight at UMak, slipped to No. 4 with 12 points.

In Division 2, Agila FC came back from two goals down to turn back Forza FC, 4-3, to jump from a four-way logjam at No. 4 with its recent victim, Union Internacional Manila and Laos FC to solo No. 3 with 12 points.

Pachanga FC leads the division with 18 points while Diliman Victory Liner FC runs second with 16 points.

After Hussain Al Mohjili and Isaac Agyee made it 2-0 following goals on the fourth and 34th minute Agila’s Donald Somoza drilled in a goal on the 40th minute to trim their deficit to just 1-2 at the break.

Then, in a span of three minutes, Peter Ian Mortillero unleashed two goals while Zaldy Maranon Jr. had one to turn things around.

William Pajibo kept Forza alive with a goal just a minute before injury time but Agila parked the bus from there to hold on to the win.