Records Equalled, Set: Recapping the LFL Stats after Round 2 of Action

Action in the Round 2 match between Green Stallions FC and Kings FC.

Goals continue to flow like champagne in the Lipa Football League as another 35 were scored in the second round of matches played last 28 October 2018. In all, 58 goals have been scored after eight matches in two rounds for an average of 7.25 per match. If that isn’t entertainment for fans, we don’t know what is!

This average is down from the first season’s 11.25 goals at the same stage of the season. However, it needs to be pointed out to the reader that the first season format was 7-a-side and there were wide open spaces at the UB-Lipa field compared to this season’s 9-a-side format at the Aboitiz Pitch. The lower average also shows that league is more balanced this season and there are less blowout matches.

Gerard Pena’s four goals in the 11-2 rout by Green Stallions FC of Stonyhurst International School’s Kings FC equaled the league’s best individual goalscoring performance by a player in one match. Pena’s hattrick was Season 2’s second, although Kings FC hotshot only scored three goals in his club’s heartbreaking 3-4 loss to Lipa Emmanuel FC.

Gerard Pena (above) scored 4 goals against Kings FC.

Mazloum achieved the feat twice in Season 1 by scoring 4-goal hattricks against ACF Real Molinillo and Brahman FC. Defending LFL champion FC Reigning Kickers’ Michael Angelo Hernandez also scored four in his club’s Season 1 defeat of Brahman FC.

The Green Stallions 11-goal output against Kings FC also set a new club goalscoring record for a single match. Real Molinillo scored 10 in Season 1’s opener against Kings FC, while BCAS FC (now playing as Lipa Emmanuel) also scored 10 in the rout of Brahman FC in the 5^th round of Season 1.

Conversely, Kings FC also set an unwanted record for the most number of goals conceded by a club in a single match, one goal more than the 10 it conceded to Real Molinillo in the opening match of Season 1.

For the second straight round, no club suffered the ignominy of a shutout. Despite conceding 11, Kings FC scored twice against Green Stallions FC – courtesy of Mazloum, needless to say. Lipa Emmanuel defended deep to keep out Real Molinillo, but eventually lost by 6 goals. Gerard Gutierrez’s pounced on an error by Kim Magpantay to prevent a shutout.

For the second straight round, a match was won by the odd goal of seven, to perhaps illustrate the more balanced field in Season 2 of the LFL. Lipa Emmanuel edged Kings FC 4-3 in Round 1; while La Salle FC, 5-1 winners over defending champions FC Reigning Kickers in Round 1, pipped the debuting Legends FC by the same score in the second round.

Mentors FC has the league's best defensive record.  Image source:  Josepheus Lopez.

Mazloum leads the goalscoring chart after two rounds of the LFL with 5 goals, as he did in Season 1; but 3 goals less than his 8 goal total after two rounds in Season 1. Pena, who has played one game less, is second with 4. La Salle FC’s Ronnie Singson is 3^rd with 3 goals from two matches.

Mentors FC and Real Molinillo have the league’s best defenses after Round 2, both clubs having conceded just three goals. The Mentors have the better goal difference, however, having scored one goal more than Real Molinillo. Both clubs are top of the table of their respective groups.