By Ivan Saldajeno
MANILA--Ruben Doctora played his best game since an ACL injury sidelined him last year by finishing with a hat trick in Stallion's 4-1 UFL win against Socceroo at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
Doctora hit three goals in a 17-minute span in the second half to lead Stallion to its seconds straight win in as many matches to get the provisional lead.
Doctora made his first goal with a beautiful strike from just inside the box an hour into the match. He followed it up eight minutes later as he received a short cross and drilled the ball inside the open net as Guilherme Hasegawa made a wrong commitment move.
Doctora once again found himself without Hasegawa to stop his shot in the 77th minute as he broke loose of a scramble inside the penalty area and completed the hat trick.
Simone Rota made the only other goal for Stallion as he drew first blood with a penalty at the 18th minute.
Jerome Cuyos scored the consolation goal for Socceroo in stoppage time as he received the corner kick and shot the ball to the goal, stunning Ref Cuaresma, who was on track of getting a second straight clean sheet.
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