Seventh Heaven in Sugbu

A heavily-rotated Cebu FC lineup delivered the goods and kept themselves in the thick of the title race by handily defeating the hapless Manila Montet FC 7-0 in PFL action Sunday afternoon at the Borromeo Center.

Coach Memis Ozata took this opportunity to rest his regular starters and give game time to the other members of his squad, knowing that three points were all but guaranteed considering the gulf in class between his 2nd-place Giants and the absolutely floundering Sky Blues, who had scored only one goal all season. It showed early; Cebu dominated the ball but played at a relaxed pace, meaning initial opportunities either went begging or were claimed by Montet netminder Rafael Mamonong.

The dam inevitably cracked, however, and the goals started to flow in the 29th minute — Rintaro Hama poking a Devrim Yanik cross past Mamonong to open the scoring. Marius Kore doubled the lead 4 minutes later after nodding in a Zamoranho Ho-A-Tham corner straight past the now-besieged Mamonong, and Cebu took a 3-0 lead into the break on the strength of a Rhino Goutier penalty in first-half stoppage time.

The second half continued the trend of one-way traffic common in Montet matches, simply switching directions; Cebu stayed on top of the action. The goalscoring resumed with a bang as Jaime Rosquillo hit a quickfire brace, starting in the 67th minute after another Ho-A-Tham corner was nodded in and then coming back for seconds 2 minutes later with an absolute rocket of a shot from outside the box to make it 5-0 for the hosts.

The party did not stop, however, as Glenn Ramos made it 6-0 in the 73rd minute after a driving run to the box and a sweetly placed shot, and Rintaro Hama bookended the scoring in the 86th minute after being fastest to a Ho-A-Tham blocked shot, sending the Sugbu crowd to seventh heaven.