WITH GREAT resolve, the Ateneo Women’s Football Team (AWFT) ended their brawl against the University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons with a tightly contested deadlock, 2-2. The University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 86 match took place yesterday at the UP Diliman Football Field in Quezon City.

This result puts the Blue Eagles at fourth place in the standings with a win-draw-loss record of 0-1-2 and a goal differential of -13.

At the onset of the Battle of Katipunan duel, both teams immediately came out to attack. UP would push the pace, however, Aurea Reaso committed an offside violation in the second minute—giving up possession to the Blue Eagles. Ateneo wasted no time turning this opportunity into gold as a shocking seventh-minute conversion by KC Zalamea bagged her team their first goal of the season, 1-0.

While Ateneo looked to apply more pressure with their advantageous position, the Fighting Maroons remained firm in continuing their aggressive play. The Blue Eagles caught a lucky break with a UP goal being waved off at the 18th minute, but they failed to contain Reaso who drilled in an equalizer in the following minute, 1-1.

With the Blue and White looking to regain momentum, the next 10 minutes of the match saw great defensive efforts by Ateneo’s Traci Lim and Kristine Napoles.

By the 34th minute, Raya Tolentino successfully deflected a hard kick by Reaso, which was followed by a Napoles header to stave off yet another UP goal attempt. Shortly thereafter, UP’s Drea Montilla ended her team’s scoring drought in the 37th minute, taking the lead for the Fighting Maroons, 2-1.

Physicality defined the second half of the contest as multiple collisions left numerous players from both teams shaken up. Most notably, Napoles fell after colliding with a UP player and did not return for the remainder of the contest. Another incident saw Toochie Eval crash into UP’s Reg Chua, with the former taking a longer time to get up. Despite this, both players stayed on the pitch to play the rest of the game. 

While the scrappy style of play challenged the Blue Eagles, it was equally a blessing in disguise as a UP foul in the 75th minute awarded a penalty kick to Ateneo, eventually gaining opportunity to tie the game. A left-side hit in the following minute by rookie Angely Alferez was all it took for the equalizer as the Atenean registered the first goal of her young career, 2-2.

The latter stages of the duel saw a slugfest between the Katipunan-based squads as the physical play started to wear on all of the players. Fatigue began setting in as neither team was able to take full control of possessions. A last-ditch effort by Alferez to score in extra time went too far to the left. The final play of the evening saw an easy save for Adri Lee as Ateneo secured their first draw of UAAP Season 86.

Already scoring more goals in this game alone than in the entirety of Season 85, Ateneo will look to channel this positive momentum into their following contests. The Blue Eagles will face the University of Santo Tomas Lady Booters next Saturday, March 23 at 6:30 PM in the same venue.