By Kevin Estrada
MANILA--As if to say the winning the league is not enough, Ceres-La Salle brought its championship form by slaying the UST Growling Tigers, 7-0 in the UFL Cup Round of 16 at the Rizal Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
A brace each for Bienvenido Marañon, Lee Jeong-Woo, and Patrick Reichelt helped propel the Bacolod Busmen as they bucked a slow first half and punched their ticket to the quarterfinals in its push for a league and cup double which was last clinched by Stallion two seasons ago. Ceres is actually gunning for a treble as the club won the inaugural FA League Cup last year.
But it was not smooth sailing for Ceres right from the first whistle as Fidel Kue surprised everyone at the very first minute, but his effort was wide.
The surprise was a wake-up call for Ali Go and his wards, who immediately changed gears and went into attack mode after that.
And in the eleventh minute, Marañon drew first blood in the tie, after he slotted the ball past Zaldy Abraham from a Jeffrey Christiaens corner.
With three minutes to go in the first half, the Spanish winger made his brace with shot that hit the post and into the back of the net to make it 2-0 before the break.
Ceres kicked to high gear nine minutes into the restart as Lee picked the ball away from Abraham and putting it in the back of the net to make it 3-0.
Three minutes later, Lee practically secured their progression to the quarterfinal with his own brace after he fired a rocket to make it 4-0.
The newly crowned league champion imposed its title-winning form further on as Reichelt scored his own brace as well. In the 61st minute, he made it 5-0 after he chipped the ball past Abraham.
Twelve minutes later, the Azkal winger calmly scores after a great pass by Lee to make it 6-0.
Ceres settled the final score nine minutes from time, with a corner that breezed past Abraham.
Ceres will face either UFL Division 2 outfit Agila or fellow La Salle-based club Green Archers United in the quarterfinal on Friday.
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