UFL: Hartmann pulls off brace as Loyola Meralco dumps Nomads, 5-0

MANILA, Philippines – Loyola Meralco Sparks leaned Fil-Brit Mark Hartmann's brace as it whitewashed Nomads FC, 5-0, to seize the solo lead in the First Division of the United Football League at the McKinley Hill grounds Tuesday night.

Hartmann opened the scoring with a 37th minute goal on blasting free kick that zoomed straight past Nomads goalie Friso Klok and another one by Chad Gould four minutes later gave the Sparks a 2-0 lead going into halftime.

Then Hartmann struck again on the 64th to make it a 3-0 cushion before Simon Greatwich and Phil Younghusband joined the scoring parade with rockets on the 69th and 89th, respectively, to put the match out of reach.

Hartman's brace thus hiked his goal total to six as the Sparks jumped from third to solo first place with 16 match points on five wins and a draw. The Sparks also surged past reigning League champion Global FC and last year's Cup titlist Stallion FC Stallion FC, which slid to joint second with 15 points apiece.

Despite the surprisingly lopsided defeat, Nomads remained at No. 4 with 11 points on three wins and two draws against two defeats.

Kaya FC, a team bankrolled by LBC, showed some signs of life after getting a new coach in David Perkovic as it waylaid Army FC, 3-0, in a match that saw an ejection of an Army booter for kicking a referee.

Sean Iliff, Jose Elmer Porteria and Janrick Soriano provided the blows by scoring on the 43rd, 63rd and 91st, respectively, as the Kaya booters leapt from sixth to fifth spot with eight points on two wins and two standoffs against two setbacks.

The match turned ugly when, just moments after Soriano put on the exclamation mark, Army defender Rodrigo Betita, at first, kicked the ball to assistant ref Ronaldo Yurag and kicking him outright on the leg seconds later.

That prompted match officials to toss Betita out, which would mean an automatic minimum one-game suspension and a possible fine.

It was the Armymen's fifth defeat and remained with just a point a show.