Ceres-La Salle, Meralco thump unfancied foes

MANILA, Philippines - League titlist Ceres La Salle FC and Loyola Meralco Sparks FC played true to form and easily grabbed their quarterfinal seats at the expense of less fancied rivals Saturday night in the UFL Cup Round-of-16 at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.

The Bacolod-based Ceres booters thrashed second division side University of Santo Tomas FC, 7-0, to progress to the Last-8, where they will meet the winner in the match between Green Archers United and Agila MSA. 

Bienvenido Marañon (10’, 42’), Lee Jeong Woo (53’, 57) and Azkals mainstay Patrick Reichelt (61’, 73’) took turns scoring back-to-back goals to power Ceres to the one-sided victory. Ceres’ No. 7 came from an own goal by UST’s Karl Christian Fronda with nine minutes left before the final whistle.

For their part, defending Cup champion Sparks ripped Mendiola FC, 5-0 to advance to the quarters.

Anthony Putrus-Schnell (23’, 36’) and Graham Caygill (78’, 90+1’) fired a brace sandwiching the 73rd-minute conversion of Bradley Grayson as the Sparks booked the easy triumph.

Loyola Meralco will face Manila Jeepney in the quarters. Manila Jeepney advanced after beating Forza FC, 2-0, in their Round-of-16 duel earlier this week.

Also through to the next round was top seed Kaya FC, which annihilated Manila Nomads, 10-1, last Thursday.

Two more Last-8 seats were up for grabs last night with Stallion FC and Team Socceroo mixing it up and Laos FC and Pachanga Diliman FC slugging it out.