MANILA – Kaya Futbol Club-Iloilo kicked off its title-retention bid with a 2-0 victory over returning United City Football Club in the 2024 Philippines Football League on Sunday night at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.
Eric Esso opened the scoring for the Iloilo City-based football club as he knocked in a strike from a timely pass by Robert Lopez Mendy at the edge of the box in the fourth minute.
United City, which is making a return in the league after taking a leave of absence last season due to financial concerns, made it hard for Kaya-Iloilo to score a follow up goal the rest of the way with their tight defense.
Kaya-Iloilo eventually notched its second goal of the contest late courtesy of Ilonggo Jan Jesus Melliza, whose conversion was initially foiled by United City keeper Matt Silva but the referee still counted the conversion.
With the victory, Kaya Iloilo joined Mendiola, Stallion Laguna, Dynamic Herb Cebu, Maharlika Taguig, and Manila Digger on top of the leaderboard with three points apiece.
Stallion-Laguna, meanwhile, hacked out a dominant 7-0 victory over the Don Bosco Garelli United, duplicating the seven-goal victory of Mendiola against Philippine Air Force last Saturday.
Stallion-Laguna made their presence felt quickly as Bezerra Duorado drew first blood in the seventh minute before it was followed by a connection by Finn McDaniel in the 14th minute.
The goal spree continued for Stallion-Laguna as Gab Silva made a clinical conversion off a Juan Trujillo short cross just before the halftime whistle to make it a 3-0 score.
In the second half, Trujillo connected on his own in the 59th minute after flicking the ball past the defense before Julian Stifano added the squad’s fifth connection in the 80th-minute.
Stallion-Laguna then completed the lopsided win as Junior Sam scored a putback goal off a miss by Christian Schaffner in the 82nd minute before following it up with another hit in the 87th minute for his second goal of the match./PN
