San Beda sweeps 1st round of NCAA football

San Beda bucked the ejection of their top striker to beat defending champion St. Benilde, 2-0, and sweep the first round of the 86th NCAA football tournament on Saturday at the University of Makati field. After a scoreless first half, Calvin Roy Lantin struck in the 63rd minute for San Beda’s first goal. Francis Sumudvilla added one more 20 minutes later, sealing the outcome as the Red Lions beat their arch-nemesis in a rematch of last year's finals. In winning the rugged match, the Mendiola-based booters, improved to a perfect 4-0-0 (win-loss-draw) record for a total of 12 points. They try to remain perfect when they go up against University of Perpetual Help on Monday. St. Benilde, which ended San Beda's eight-year reign last year, finished the first round with a 4-1-0 record (12 points). San Beda won despite the ejection of striker David Franz Fornea, who was issued a red card in the 40th minute for a dangerous play, leaving the Red Lions with just 10 men for the rest of the match. "We were able to execute well in the second half despite having just 10 players on the field," said San Beda coach Aries Caslib, a former mentor of the Philippine football team. Lantin got help from Bongbong Dorlas, who made a key cross near the left corner of the field before quickly kicking it from inside the box against a Blazers defender and past CSB keeper Thomas Talipan for the first goal of the match. SBC's second goal got some help from an error by St. Benilde substitute keeper Tommy Iraula. Sumudvilla made a high-looping kick that that didn't seem extraordinary. The ball kept bouncing towards Iraula in what appeared to be a typical stop for the keeper, who replaced Talipan in the 77th minute. But the ball bounced too high and sailed past the head of Iraula, who was standing inches from the goal area, and into the net, surprising the Blazers. San Beda controlled most of the game and had numerous chances to score in the first half, while St. Benilde had rare opportunities. – JVP, KY, GMANews.TV