Courtesy: The East Hampton Star


Scorpion Stings Virgen del Milagro in Men’s Futsal Final

Futsal final at the Sportime arena

by Jack Graves

March 6, 2013

Scorpion, a team led by Antonio Padilla, Mario Olaya, and Danny Bedoya, defeated the very competitive Virgen del Milagro entry, whose lineup included Missael Piadranarte and the league’s leading goal scorer, Marco Bautista, 3-1 in a hotly contested men’s open futsal final at the Sportime arena in Amagansett Saturday night.

Earlier that evening, the Andesitos, with Nancy Sisalima making good on two tries, prevailed 5-4 in a penalty kick shootout over Union Latina to win the women’s division, and El Veneno, behind Walter Criollo’s hat trick, defeated the Cosmos 6-3 in the men’s 38-plus final.

In other action, Sportime, a women’s team coached by Ramon Naula, who oversees adult soccer at the arena, took third place in the women’s league, shutting out a shorthanded Hamptons squad 6-0 as Sophie Gianis, a Pierson High School senior, Anna Strong, and Jen Inamagua each scored two goals.

Sportime had gone undefeated in the regular season, but, with Inamagua absent, was upset 1-0 by Union Latina in the semifinal round. Claudia Meza’s perfectly placed long kick in the second half won it for Union Latina.

Virgen del Milagro was the defending men’s champion, but in the early going of the extremely fast-paced final, Bedoya, who had received a pass from Padilla, beat Olger (Quique) Araya, Virgen’s goalie, to go up 1-0.

Piadranarte, as sure a ball-handler as any on the floor in the 7-on-7 battle, brought Virgen even with a blast from about eight yards out that zipped by Scorpion’s keeper, Franklin Tacuri, just before the first half ended.

In the early minutes of the second frame, Padilla, who was to be named the game’s most valuable player, converted a free kick he’d taken after Araya had incurred a penalty for coming out of the box. Taken in close, Padilla’s ground-hugger, which was deflected off a defender’s leg, caught Araya off-balance.

Soon after, Virgen, with Marco Bautista having carried the ball up the left side and Jhon Romero advancing with him, on the right, looked as if it would tie the count at 2-2, but play was interrupted in an untimely fashion — much to Virgen’s consternation — by a quixotic sounding of the buzzer.

“It’s a shame,” Araya said afterward when asked why Virgen del Milagro had refused to participate in the awards ceremony that followed the final, “but that’s soccer. The indoor game is so fast that you dare not fall asleep . . . and that includes the referees.”

With 12:40 left, Padilla went airborne as the result of a collision with Oscar Bautista, who was red-carded (and thus was ejected from the game, leaving Virgen to play a man-down thereafter) as Padilla, lying in pain on his back, was ministered to, by, among others, Araya, an emergency medical technician with the East Hampton Fire Department. Padilla, his head bandaged, was subsequently taken to the sidelines as Jimmy Baculima — to cheers from the sidelines — replaced him.

Baculima quickly got off two serious shots. Araya saved the first, and the next, made after stealing the ball from Piadranarte, clanged off the right post. Araya came up big twice more as the clock was running down, knocking back over the crossbar a shot taken by Olaya, who’d juked Franklin Bermeo, and parrying a bid by Bedoya.

With 2:30 left to play, Olaya brushed by a defender on the left side and passed to Baculima, who, unmarked, beat Araya, capping Scorpion’s scoring and effectively putting the game out of Virgen’s reach.

There was to be another serious Scorpion attack with two minutes to go, but somehow Araya, who momentarily faced three attackers alone, survived it.

At the awards ceremony, Christine Carrol, Sportime’s goalie (who was in Thailand on a Ross School M-Term trip), was named the women’s league’s M.V.P. and her teammate Inamagua was cited as that league’s high-scorer; Criollo, of El Veneno, was named the 38-plus men’s league’s M.V.P.; Wilson Garcia, of the Cosmos, was that league’s top scorer, and Piadranarte was the open men’s league M.V.P.

Scorpion reached the final by defeating Liga del Milagro in a penalty shootout thanks to a goal by Milton Quizhpi, and Virgen del Milagro defeated La Calle 6-1 as Marco Bautista scored four of the winner’s goals.

Sportime’s next adult soccer season is to begin Friday, March 15.






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