FFAS MEDIA

Pago Pago, American Samoa, Wednesday, March 3, 2010 — Ilaoa & To’omata and Black Roses played to a thrilling 2-2 draw in Match Day 3 of the men’s Futsal League 2010 on Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at ASCC’s gymnasium.

In other men’s games, Utulei Youth held off Lion Heart 5-3 while FC SKBC defeated PanSa 6-2.

FC SKBC and Utulei Youth’s wins enabled them to settle into the top two seeds, respectively, of the standings.

At the moment the top four are FC SKBC, Utulei Youth, Ilaoa & To’omata and Pago Youth A.

ILAOA & TO’OMATA 2, BLACK ROSES 2

This was a grudge match for Ilaoa & To’omata as they were playing against a team consisting of two former players of theirs.

Pedro Diaz and Pepa Meredith were key members of their team that finished second place in the 11-a-side competition for 2009 but in between that competition and Futsal 2010, both transferred to Black Roses.

Ilaoa & To’omata though, has fresh faces on their team, two of them transfers, who have emerged as key players for their squad. Niu Fasia, formerly of PanSa and Fa’i Afasene of the Tafuna Jets.

They also had Trevor Kaituu on their team who displayed excellent dribbling and passing skills against Black Roses.

The teams were evenly matched and the goals came within a minute of each other.

Tusi Lagai scored for the Leone-based squad in the 10^th minute of the match only to see that lead last only a minute as Diaz tapped in a cross from Bob Niusila for the equalizer in the 11^th.

In the second half it was a reversal with Jerry Iosefa scoring from a kick near the right corner area in the 29^th minute.

But just a minute later Fasia scored on a sliding shot right past an out of position goalie for the equalizer.

UTULEI YOUTH 5, LION HEART 3

Utulei Youth stormed to a 3-0, first half lead behind goals by Elama Fa’atonu (3^rd), Iopu Kaleopa (14^th) and JP Fa’avae (18^th).

But in the second Lion Heart fought back and were rewarded with an Utulei own-goal in the 23^rd minute and then pulled to within one of the lead, 3-2, on a shot, while falling down, by Rueben Luvu Jr. in the 31^st minute.

Utulei finally recovered enough to score their first of the second half from Pesamino Victor with less than eight to play only to see Lalotoa Vaeao close the gap to a one-goal lead with 6:54 to play.

Victor put the winning margin back to two with 44 seconds to play to complete the match’s final score.

FC SKBC 6, PANSA 2

PanSa had this game in the first half, scoring first and leading 2-1 at the end of the first half on goals from Jeremy Adams.

But in the second half it started with a bang for FC SKBC as their gun slinger, Gun Chul Kang, scored two goals two minutes apart to give them a 3-2 lead and then completed his hat trick with 4:58 to play for 4-2 score.

Team captain Jin Yong Lee also completed a hat trick of his own to help his team win big, 6-2, and also claim the top spot in the men’s standings.

On Thursday, March 4, Pago A takes on Fagasa at 5:30; Black Roses plays Pago B at 7:30 while FC SKBC faces Ilaoa & To’omata at 9:30 p.m.