Central Visayas girls’ futsal team banks on tough defense to win crown
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur — The Central Visayas girls’ futsal team turned to its pesky defense to defeat the National Capital Region, 10-2, in the championship game of girls’ futsal in the 61st Palarong Pambansa at the Santa Municipal Gym, some 30 kilometers away from Vigan City.
The girls’ futsal gold was one of six gold medals won by Central Visayas in this annual multi-sporting meet yesterday.
Central Visayas now has a total of 18 gold medals, 10 silvers, and 16 bronze medals to stay at fourth place in the partial and unofficial medal standings.
The futsal team of Region 7, whose core are players from the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu of Mandaue City, went unbeaten in their entire campaign here. The team is backed up by players from Cebu City and Talisay City.
Head coach Apple Bariñan used the “defense is the best offense” strategy to steer the team to the title.
She said that because of the tough and pesky defense, the team was able to convert goals against an NCR team that was manned by players from Assumption College and Miriam College.
“We had to defend them the entire game, whether it’s one-on-one or group defending. And not giving them an easy way to attack our goal [made it] very easy for us to attack theirs,” Bariñan said.
Bariñan, also the head coach of SHS-AdC, said the team was very determined to win the title this year.
“We made it to the quarterfinals last year, so I told the girls to strive harder and train harder so that we can leave a legacy,” said Bariñan.
Last year’s champion was Western Visayas.
Itsuko Bacatan, Sheila Estopito and Arantxa Trebol scored three goals each while Judd Sydney Gonzales added one to complete the rout of NCR. The rest of Central Visayas’ girls futsal team are Regine Chua, Peeve Layague, Shadinne Pepito, Katrina Rodriguez, Rizamae Ugbaniel, Janreese Jumawan and Trizza Musni.
“This gold medal is special for the girls because a lot of them won’t be able to compete in the Palaro next year because of the age limit. So this is a very sweet victory,” Bariñan added.
Meanwhile, Cebuana gymnast Daniela Reggie Dela Pisa bagged four gold medals at the Santa Maria Municipal gym.
Central Visayas has five gold medals so far in gymnastics after Euricka Soronio won a single gold medal last Wednesday evening.
Dela Pisa topped the Individual All-Around (IAA), rope, handball and hoop events in the secondary girls gymnastics event.
At the San Ildefonso Elementary School in the outskirts of Vigan City, Sibulan town’s pride Phoebe Nicole Amistoso stamped class in the single fita event of girls’ archery after bagging her fourth gold medal and breaking another record in the process.
Amistoso, of Silliman University, scored 1,312 points in the single fita event to erase Charmaine Villamor’s 2017 record of 1,301 points.
The 16-year-old Amistoso broke two records earlier this week in the 30m and 40m events.
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