Restless Ceres escapes Kaya but gets stuck in 4th

MANILA – Ceres Negros tightened its defense in the end to get away with a 3- 2 victory over Kaya Makati in the Philippines Football League at the University of Makati football stadium.

Omid Nazari, Arnie Pasinabo and Bienvenido Marañon fired a goal each to lead the way for Ceres, which remained in fourth place with 25 points. Kaya was also stuck in third with 27 points.

“I think we deserve the victory. We were better and tried to play football all the time,” said head coach Risto Vidakovic, who recently steered the Negros Occidental- based team to an AFC Cup zonal finals win.

Nazari opened the scoring for Ceres in the 19th minute on Saturday with a low drive free kick. The lead doubled early in t he second half when Pasinabo drained from outside the box.

Kaya quickly snipped the deficit as Robert Lopez- Mendy scored f rom close range before Ceres restored a two- goal advantage with Marañon scoring from a pass by Fernando Rodriguez.

Again, Kaya answered with a goal from Jordan Mintah late in the match to come close but Ceres secured the win by

preventing the former from having another possession.

Meanwhile, Meralco Manila scored the first three goals of the game before hanging on to a 3-2 victory over Stallion Laguna in Biñan, Laguna.

Conor Tacagni converted two headers in the first half while Tyler Matas added

another one in the second f rame for Meralco, which remained on top with 33 points.

After Meralco started with 3- 0, Stallion answered with two goals from Ko Kyung Joon and Fitch Arboleda, but the latter team failed to score any follow-up./