Courtesy: Marianas Variety


Guam Shipyard overcomes Orange Crushers, wins Futsal crown

Tuesday December 4, 2007

By Jude Lizama

Variety News Staff

GUAM Shipyard clawed their way out of the darkness of mediocrity to defeat the high powered Orange Crushers and earn the 2007 Guam Football Association Women’s Futsal League Championship Sunday afternoon at the Guam Sports Complex in Harmon.

Guam Shipyard finished off the regular season 3-1-3, good enough for a near bottom of the barrel fifth place ranking. However, with determination they made a strong run during the playoff pool play and never looked back, putting a stamp on the league with their 5-4 semi-finals upset over the league leading juggernaut, Hyundai.

Their finals opponent, the Orange Crushers, barely escaped the Pacificare Tigers with a 2-1 double overtime semi-finals victory. After entering playoffs atop the league with a 6-0-1 regular season record, the Orange Crushers seemed to lose their score-at-will capability and it showed during the championship match.

One minute and forty seconds into the first half of the championship match, Shipyard’s Gebra Naburn scored a goal to take an extremely early lead. A few minutes later, Orange Crusher Alex McGourty responded with a game tying goal. Action was deadlocked at one goal a piece for the next few minutes until Naburn booted in her second goal of the game to take a one point lead over the Crushers, 2-1.

The Orange Crushers defense was uncharacteristically forgiving as they allowed a third Shipyard goal by Deidre Weakley at 17:04. Game score remained 3-1 for more than 10 minutes when Orange Crusher Anjelica Perez knocked in a goal with under five minutes before halftime to bring her team within one score of Shipyard, 3-2. Gebra Naburn’s sister, Ginalynn, scored the Shipyard’s fourth goal just seconds before the halftime buzzer sounded as they led by two goals going into the break, 4-2.

Less than five minutes into the second half, Gebra Naburn completed a hat trick with her third goal of the match that stretched the Shipyard lead to three goals, 5-2. Roughly eight minutes later, Orange Crusher Heather Thompson scored to bring her team back within two scores of Shipyard. Shortly after, Weakley bolted her second score in with a kick that sent the ball to the upper right hand corner of the goal, away from the outstretched hands of Crusher goalkeeper Jessa Mesa.

Shipyard’s Ginalynn Naburn and Orange Crusher Kristin Thompson scored a goal each during the ninth minute with Shipyard still ahead by three scores, 7-4. Orange Crusher Heather Thompson nearly scored her team’s fifth goal as time winded down but the ball missed high over the top bar. The score remained the same for the remainder of the match as Shipyard went on to take the championship win.


Third place match: Hyundai 4 vs. Pacificare Tigers 2
Hyundai’s Tiana Piper and Tanya Blas-Cruz; and the Tiger’s Nina Peck and Caroline Quigley each scored a goal as the teams entered the halftime break tied, 2-2. However, one goal each from Hyundai’s Kiko Yamamoto and Shana Spindel propelled Hyundai over the Tigers to nab the consolation game victory.



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