By ADRIAN STEWART CO

Kaya Futbol Club-Iloilo showed its strength with a 2-1 beating of Stallion-Laguna Football Club in the first leg of the two-leg 2023 Copa Paulino Alcantara semifinals at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium on Saturday night, October 21.

Veteran Arnel Amita and Justin Baas drilled a conversion each in the second half for the Iloilo City-based football club as they moved closer to a return trip to the championship round.

After struggling with their attempts in the opening half, Kaya-Iloilo broke the scoreless deadlock in the 59th minute, as Amita evaded his defenders from inside the box to score from close range.

Not long after Amita’s connection, Baas doubled the advantage as he curled one into the top corner from outside the box in the 62nd minute past the defense of Stallion-Laguna keeper Hayeson Pepito.

However, Stallion-Laguna kept their chances alive as Japanese Yuta Nomura eluded the defense of Kaya-Iloilo to slot the ball from close range in the 70th minute to cut the deficit to 1-2.

Kaya-Iloilo then tightened their defense from that point as they prevented Stallion-Laguna from making decent attempts in the final 26 minutes, including the added six minutes, to escape with the lead.

“It’s a good win for us. We got the early lead and, hopefully, no one stayed injured for us,” Kaya-Iloilo assistant coach Yu Hoshide said.

“We just have to focus on our second leg game,” he added.

In the other two-leg semifinals series, the returning Davao Aguilas Football Club took a 1-0 aggregate advantage after the first leg against the favored Dynamic Herb Cebu-Football Club.

Troy Limbo drilled a connection from close range in the 37th minute to give Davao Aguilas a 1-0 lead, which proved to be enough for them to lead the powerhouse Dynamic Herb Cebu.

The second leg of the two semifinals series is still to be determined by the Philippine Football Federation, with the aggregate winners advancing to the one-game championship round, which will take place next month./ASC, WDJ