MANILA – University of the East (UE) Red Warriors survived a late rally by the Adamson University Falcons to pull off a match-thrilling 3-2 victory in the UAAP Season 82 Men’s Football Tournament at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
UE took control of the game early through Nikko Palacio’s strike past Falcons’ goalkeeper Zacchaeus Suarez in the third minute. Joshua Macaraig, meanwhile, regained the ball from John Lester Carandang’s missed penalty to double the lead in the 35th minute.
Macaraig then celebrated his brace (two goals in a single game) in the match in the 75th minute to virtually seal the win for the Red Warriors. The Falcons, however, took advantage of UE’s defensive lapses.
Bryce Rabino and Arnulfo Villanueva took advantage of some questionable defending on the part of the Red Warriors to hand the Falcons goals in the 44th and 90+4 minutes, respectively, but could not get an equalizer.
“Yun nga lang may dalawa kaming binigay na easy goal. Tapos luckily lang, yung’ sa amin pumapasok. All in all, yung’ target namin is to get three points. Yun lang naman regardless of performance,” said Red Warriors mentor Fitch Arbeloda.
In the other game results of the tournament, De La Salle University (DLSU) Green Archers and Far Eastern University (FEU) Tamaraws shared the spoils of a 1-1 draw on exchange of goals by FEU’s Akim Dalam and DLSU’s Jed Diamante.
Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles and University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons, also settled for the same result with conversions from UP’s Francis Tacardon and Nino Herrera’s spot-kick for Ateneo./PN
