CDN PHOTO / CHRISTIAN MANINGO
LEYLAM FC avenged its loss last season to ERCO with a 5-0 rout of the latter to clinch its second Inter-Company title in the 19th Aboitiz Football Cup in a heated finals match last night at the Paref Springdale football field.
The match was halted with eight minutes remaining to full regulation to avoid a tussle from becoming a full blown fight between both teams.
The altercation followed a red card call on ERCO’s Archival Comendador, who was cited for reckless tackling.
Leylam’s Edmar Galacio then started thrash talking, accusing ERCO booters of playing dirty because they were already losing the match.
ERCO’s Oscar Densing answered back, which started a shouting match. That earned Densing a ban, verbally decided by tournament director Glenn Quisido.
This is the second time this year that Leylam and ERCO got into a tussle. The first was during the recently held 15th Thirsty Football Cup.
Leylam bagged its first title in the 17th season of the tournament but failed to make it two in-a-row when it was thwarted by ERCO last season.
But the team did everything to make sure it brought home the title this year so it could uplift its players as well as the company following its re-branding last year, said head coach Oliver “Bingbing” Colina.
Rene Sanchez opened the scoring spree for Leylam with an early goal in the fifth minute of the match. However, it proved to be the only goal in the first half.
The second half, however, was a different story as Leylam made sure to pile on the goals started by Baris Tasci in the 22nd minute. Six minutes later,
Michael Pacite contributed another goal for Leylam while Evren Tasci put the team out of reach in the 32nd minute. Paul Diao sealed the title for Leylam three minutes later.
Earning the Most Valuable Player title was Pacite. Three other Leylam booters received special awards with Sanchez getting the Golden Boot award for scoring 10 goals in the entire tournament, Ruffy Llorente being named as the Best Defender and Virgilio Manayon as the Best Goalkeeper.
The Best Midfielder award went to Erich Rafael Orale for whom the ERCO team is named after.
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