Younghusbands boost Rizal in Luzon elims

MANILA—Phil and James Younghusband combined for three goals to lead Rizal’s 10-0 rout of Laguna and a sweep of the North-South-Central Luzon cluster eliminations of the Smart Club Championships recently at the University of the Philippines-Los Baños.

In his first goal in local club play, Phil opened the scoring in the 16th minute while elder brother James struck twice in the 50th and 54th minutes as the Rizal booters topped the five-team tourney with their fourth victory in a row.

The hosts absorbed their second loss in four outings, paving the way for Baguio-Benguet, which closed out with a 3-1 win-loss card, to snatch the second slot in the all-Luzon finals of the event sponsored by Smart and organized by the Philippine Football Federation.

Tarlac beat winless Quezon, 4-2, for its first victory in four games to finish fourth while their foes wound up last with a 0-4 record.

Rizal and Baguio-Benguet will join Masbate and Naga City-Camarines Sur in the all-Luzon tourney scheduled on May 11 to 13 also at the UPLB pitch.

The top two teams in the all-Luzon elims will represent the region in the Smart Club Championship nationals tentatively set either in late May or early June.

Next up is the Western Mindanao cluster qualifiers on April 26 to 28 in Pagadian, Zamboanga del Sur featuring teams from Misamis Occidental-Ozamis, Zamboanga, Zamboanga del Norte-Dipolog and Zamboanga del Sur-Pagadian. (PR)

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on April 26, 2011.