Tams repulse Archers, sweep UAAP football

MANILA, Philippines - Far Eastern U Tamaraws continued their rampage, hacking out a 3-1 victory over La Salle to sweep the first round of action in the UAAP Season 76 men’s football tourney yesterday at FEU-Diliman.

Jess Melliza netted his fifth goal of the season while Chy Villaseñor scored a brace to give FEU the cushion in notching their sixth win for a league-leading 18 points.

The Tams carried a whopping eight-point advantage against their closest pursuers University of the East (10 points on 3-1-2 win-draw-loss card) at the halfway point.

“I hope we’ll have 18 more points in the second round,” said FEU’s Korean coach Kim Chul Su, who took pride in his wards’ performance so far.

Another 6-0 outing in the second round will give the Tams an outright finals berth and a thrice-to-beat advantage.

Melliza used his chest to draw first blood for the rampaging Tams in the sixth minute. Not letting up, FEU continued to turn up the heat on offense and got rewarded by Villaseñor’s double.  

Villaseñor connected off a delivery by Arnel Amita in the 36th minute and made it back-to-back two minutes later via a followup on Melliza’s miss.

The Green Archers absorbed their third setback against three victories to finish the initial phase of hostilities with nine points in a tie for third with University of the Philippines (3-0-3).

In the distaff side, Ateneo banked on Leah Cruz’s penalty conversion in the 40th minute to stun holders FEU Lady Tams, 1-0, and wrest first place with eight markers (2-2-0).

The Lady Tams dropped to joint second with Santo Tomas on identical seven points (2-1-1 slates).