Cebu Province futsal team scores 38 goals at BP meet
The Cebu Province Under-15 girls’ futsal team made scoring looks easy as they routed two foes in the Batang Pinoy Visayas Qualifying Leg on Monday, Feb. 25.
Cebu Province will settle for no less than a return to the national championship after falling short in their title run last year and they made their intentions clear against host Iloilo City and Bayawan City.
The team, composed of players from Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHSAdC) with reinforcements from St Theresa’s College, University of Southern Philippines Foundation and Labogon National High Schoo, made Iloilo look like an amateur team, 20-1, and routed Bayawan City, 18-1.
Most of the players for Cebu Province are fresh from a gold medal finish in the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (Cviraa) meet in Dumaguete City last Feb. 16 to 22.
“The combination passes of my players are good, there’s no sign of fatigue. There’s a minor issue on defense at the start but they were quick to adjust. The morale is high coming off a gold medal in Cviraa,” head coach Binky Estrada told SunStar Cebu after the game.
The players are not resting on their laurels after a gold medal win in Cviraa and are quick to shift focus on the qualifying leg, which gives the winner a ticket to the national finals. The futsal players represented Mandaue City in the Cviraa, and are now playing for Cebu Province in the Batang Pinoy.
“They’re determined to go back to the national finals and we even talk in our dorm about that. If they go back to the nationals, they want to win the gold medal,” said Estrada.
Cebu Province settled for a silver medal in last year’s national championship in Baguio City.
With two games left in the elimination round, Cebu Province faces a challenge as three of their key players will be going home to Cebu, including 14-year-old team captain Rae Mikella Tolentino.
“We need to be the No. 1 seed. To avoid tie-breakers, we have to play dominant in all our games so that point system will be on our favor,” she said. “The bench must step up for the absent players.”
The top two teams after the elimination will advance to the championship round while the third and fourth-ranked will play for third place.
Tolentino believes that the individual talent of her teammates can fill the spot for other players.
“I used my experience to teach them to communicate and try to give them tips since most of them are in their first year competing in the Under-15. I know my teammates are talented individuals,” Tolentino said.
In the team are Maegan Andrea Alforque, Jodi Marie Banzon, Mish Tzishe Castañares, Kya Stephan Colina, Gwen Estrada, Ma. Andrea Evangelista, Joshper Halili, Mary Grace Manatad, Irish Pongasi, Jenny Rose Roble and Celina Beatrice Salazar. /