NMRAA booters on fire
THE Northern Mindanao secondary booters on Sunday drew first blood, overwhelming Davao opposition in their Palarong Pambansa campaign at the Pagsanaan pitch in Vigan, Ilocos Sur.
They whipped Davao region, 4-2 behind the assault spearheaded by NM’s reinforcement from Bukidnon Faith Academy in Andrew Ramos and Tarshis Garciano.
Garciano produced the fastest goal in Palaro football history when he scored from a volley shot 40 seconds after kickoff, coming from a pass by his striking partner Andrew Ramos. He volleyed it to the top corner of the Davao goal that caught the goalkeeper off-guarded.
Davao however refused to give up and scored an equalizer from the penalty spot after defender Joshua Ebarat handed the ball inside the penalty box.
The NM boys of coach Webbie Ranices then pushed forward as Ramos put them ahead with a goal off a pass from Geo Tacandong for a 2-1 advantage.
Ramos and Tacandong then teamed up near the end of first half as Ramos, son of well-known coach from Mindanao Greg Ramos, scored to give them a 2-goal lead at the half.
Garciano then sealed their first win with another goal at the start of the second half, even as Davao still managed to squeak in another goal after an error by a NMRAA defender.
“It was perfect execution of our team play,’’ later said coach Racines, who is assisted by his son Mawi.
Racines is also the football mentor of Corpus Christi School in Cagayan de Oro.
The NM boys will play Central Luzon today and then National Capital Region tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the NMRAA’s elementary boys were not lucky however. They got mauled by the powerhouse Central Visayas, 4-0 of coach Glen Ramos.
The Civies got their goals from Ethan Roxas, Joseph Garces, Alezandro Ledesma and Andrew Zamora.
The NM kids were playing Mimaropa as of press time. Mimaropa is composed of players from the island provinces of Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan.
The NM kids need to win this match to stay in contention for the quarterfinals. A loss will send them home inspite of their 3-1 win over Calabarzon last Saturday.
“We attacked them from the wings, controlled the midfield and pressed their attackers,’’ said coach Ramos after the match.
“The Northern Mindanao boys are technically good, but lack experience. Just like us they have very few players who have played in the Palaro last year but we compensated it by motivating them to improve,” added Ramos, a former national coach and now the assistant coach of Global-Cebu FC in the Philippine Football League.
The Civies, who fashioned out a 5-0 win over Mimaropa on Saturday’s opening day action, also blanked Calabarzon, 7-0 to make it first in the quarterfinals. (l.biantan@ gmail.com)
IF we still believe in Manny Pacquiao—we should why not?—he will have his 66th fight in barely three months from now.
His opponent is Lucas Matthysse of Chubut, Argentina.
The reigning world welterweight champion in the World Boxing Association (WBA), Matthysse is, at 35, not that young anymore.
But so is Pacquiao, who, at 39, is quite a bit