MANILA – Kaya Iloilo leaned on the late conversion of Alfred Osei to escape with a 1-0 win over JPV Marikina in the 2018 Philippines Football League Copa Paulino Alcantara on Wednesday at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
After misfiring in their early attempts, Kaya finally got one back with Osei scoring from a missed free kick by Miguel Tanton to tally their second win in as many games to top Group B.
Kaya nearly scored in the 18th minute with Robert Lopez Mendy feeding Osei inside but the latter misfired. JPV also had three clear chances to close the first half but Kaya’s goalkeeper Nathaniel Villanueva was there to foil the attempts.
At the onset of the second half Kaya nearly scored twice via close-range hits from Osei and Lopez Mendy but these were defended well by JPV goakeeper Nelson Gasic. Osei again attempted in the 72nd but sailed out.
Osei finally punched one from the top corner from a missed freebie by Tanton in the 75th minute. JPV attempted to equalize but Kaya tightened their defense to escape with the close win.
“We are really excited for this game because we did not have a match for a long time,” said Kaya team manager Chris Greatwich. “It was a grind-out win for us, however, since JPV is also a tough team.”
JPV dropped to second place in the group with 3 points on a 1-1 win-loss slate./PN
