Courtesy: Guam Pacific Daily News


Shipyard captures futsal title

By Brett Maluwelmeng

For Pacific Daily News

Guam Shipyard fought the odds and became the 2007 Bud Light Women's Futsal League champions after overcoming the Orange Crushers 7-4 in yesterday's high-octane title game at the Guam sports complex.

Gebra Naburn was the catalyst for Shipyard, notching a hat trick and adding an assist while younger sister Gina Naburn and Deidre Weakley each had two goals and an assist.

The game immediately took on the look of a title tilt, with the pace of game leaving spectators breathless. After the Crushers' Anjelica Perez saw an early long range effort hit the post, the elder Naburn slotted home the first goal of the match with just 1:30 gone. But the Crushers responded as Alex McGourty, who missed an earlier 1-on-1 opportunity, thumped home at 20:25 to level the match. Shipyard then called a timeout to make a keeper change, bringing in normal starter Jessaray Iglesias. Immediately more attack-minded, Shipyard pushed ahead and took the lead with Gebra Naburn's second goal, a 10-meter shot that Crushers keeper Jessa Mesa could only partially deflect. Thirty seconds later, Shipyard went up 3-1. Naburn turned provider and found Deidre Weakley unmarked at the far post for the easy score. Perez then cut the deficit with four minutes to go before the break, this time with the post helping her shot. Gina Naburn restored the two-goal lead twenty seconds from halftime with a goal on an open net after Weakley's breakaway effort was blocked by Mesa into her path.

Gebra Naburn completed her hat trick just over three minutes after the restart, sticking out her left foot to redirect a corner kick into the goal. The Crushers didn't hit back until Heather Thompson's goal off a quick corner kick taken by Perez cut the lead to 5-3 at 13:10. But any hopes of a comeback were dashed when Shipyard scored twice in a span of two minutes. Weakley added her second at 11:52 by putting home a layoff from Gina Naburn and returned the favor off a kick-in that Naburn had little trouble sweeping in at the far post. The Crushers' Kristin Thompson completed the scoring with a booming shot from midcourt.

"The Crushers always give us a good game. They're real competitive but in the end we were able to come out on top," Gebra Naburn said, crediting Shipyard's defense for the win. The top-seeded Crushers had defeated the fifth-seeded Shipyard 9-2 in the regular season and 6-2 in the group stage of the playoffs.


Hyundai 4, Pacificare Tigers 2: Tiana Piper, Tanya Blas-Cruz, Kiko Yamamoto and Shana Spindel all scored for Hyundai while Nina Peck and Caroline Quigley notched scores for the Tigers in the consolation match.




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com