Western Visayas edges Cagayan Valley, 2-1

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — Western Visayas started their hunt for another Palarong Pambansa title today with a 2-1 victory over Cagayan Valley in this year’s secondary – boys football competitions at the Gov. Mariano Perdices Stadium here.

The Region VI booters only needed three minutes to open the scoring in the Bracket D matchup as former Philippines U16 stalwart Nessi Ramos caught the Cagayan Valley defense sleeping with a venomous volley off Carlo Dalisay’s cross from the edge of the box.

It was an all-Western Visayas show in the first half as the Ilonggos, whose core comes from football hotbed Barotac Nuevo, controlled the tempo under the scorching late-morning sun but the Cagayan Valley back four held on tightly to prevent their opponents from scoring more goals.

“Our first goal didn’t really affect how we played throughout the game. We stuck to our plan and we won,” Western Visayas coach Domingo Subo told Rappler.

Western Visayas could have doubled their lead just before halftime but Darwin Busmion shot wide on an open goal.

“The ball took a weird bounce off a mound so the ball flew high. I should have scored that,” said the Ilonggo midfielder.

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Second-half shocker

Cagayan Valley however, shocked Region VI come second half as Ronel Manzano scored off a counter, to restore parity just three minutes after the whistle.

The Region II bets played better approaching the final stretch as they equally shared possession with their Visayan counterparts but Busmion continued to terrorize Cagayan Valley’s flanks with deadly crosses and dangerous counters.

Western Visayas’ perseverance paid off after 65 minutes as Joshua Sutena found the back of the net from a neat string of passes from the Ilonggo midfield.

“I am confident we can go far this year. We lost last year so we should bounce back and win this year’s competition,” said Subo.

Region IV-A (Calabarzon) awaits Cagayan Valley Region at 3:20 PM tomorrow while Western Visayas also faces Calabarzon in their next game on Wednesday morning. – Rappler.com