The University of San Jose Recoletos (USJ-R) escaped with a 1-0 victory after an own-goal by the University of Cebu (UC) in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (Cesafi) collegiate football competition at the Cebu City Sports Center on Sunday.
Because of the blunder, the Webmasters and will have to start their second round of elimination winless as they sport a 0-2-2 (win-loss-draw) record.
Earlier in the day, the rematch between defending champions University of San Carlos (USC) and perennial runner-up University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) ended in a scoreless draw.
After a sluggish first half, the Webmasters were finally able to execute their gameplan in the second half and created attempts, only to lose with five minutes remaining in the match. This after UC goalkeeper Louie Jay Cabuenas was attempting to save a free kick but lost hold of the ball, which rolled into his own goal.
“It was heartbreaking because we were already playing our game plan,” said head coach Jun Taneo.
USC remains at the top with seven points following a 2-0-1 card while USJ-R is at the third with a 1-1-1 card.
Idle University of the Visayas (UV) Green Booters is at second also with a 1-1-1 card. Although UV and USJ-R have the same standings, UV is at the second place because of its goal difference (GD) of two compared to USJ-R’s -1.
USPF is currently in fourth place with three draws.