THE ATENEO Blue Eagles returned to winning ways in Ang Liga Season 17 after an overpowering 3-1 victory against Arellano University (AU) on Sunday, September 29 at the Moro Lorenzo Football Field in the Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City.

The victory adds to Ateneo’s win tally, and they now hold a record of 3-1-1 after putting their slight stutter against the University of the Philippines in the previous weekend behind them.

As with their previous two matches, the Blue Eagles conceded the first goal of the game at the 35th minute after a well-worked AU free kick offered space for Ace Roldan to curl his shot into the bottom corner of the net, giving his team the lead. Ateneo created a few chances through Carlitos Mathay, Sam Lim, and Jarvey Gayoso, but were unable to finish them off as the Blue Eagles entered the break trailing.

The second half began with the introduction of four new players as Ateneo searched for the goals they desperately needed. Unlike the first half, the second half consisted of pure dominance from the Blue and White, and they finally broke through after a free kick routine of their own in the 56th minute. Gayoso won the foul and William Grierson drilled it in low for the perfectly positioned Lim to score. A number of chances would follow only for Ateneo to be denied by the AU keeper. 

Finally, at the 90th minute and with time running out, a series of quick passes by the Blue Eagles led to a killer through ball from Jojo Fuentes that opened up the AU defense for Jimi Haosen to receive, calmly round the keeper, and put his side in the lead. Right after Ateneo’s second goal, the Blue Eagles won a free kick at the edge of the box that was taken by Grierson and initially blocked by the wall, but he collected the rebound and fired another shot that rocketed into the back of the net to seal the well-earned victory.

Similar to their previous two matches, the Blue Eagles faced the problem of coming from behind after starting the game slower than they had hoped, and they will surely seek to address this recurring issue in the coming weeks. However, major positives can be taken from this convincing win, specifically in the second half, such as the tidy defending and the multiple number of chances created by the team as they pushed for a win until the very last minute.

Ateneo Starting XI:

Arcilla (GK); Cordero, Liao, Grierson, J. Dy; Gayoso, Uy, Setters, C. Mathay; Haosen, Lim

Substitutions:

45’ – Young in for Cordero
45’ – P. Mathay in for Uy 
45’ – Guerrero in for Liao
45’ – James in for Arcilla
72’ – R. Dy in for Lim
72’ – Fuentes in for Setters