Hopwood earns second win in middle school soccer

THE Hopwood Middle School Hilitais earned their second straight win by overpowering the Mount Carmel School Knights 8-1 on Tuesday at the NMI Soccer Training Center.

Hopwood, which earlier thrashed Saipan International School 10-0, remains a force to be reckoned with in the NMI Football Association-PSS Interscholastic Soccer League Middle School Boys Division.

Against MCS, Hopwood entered the opening half with guns blazing. After just six minutes of back-and-forth action, the Hilitais scored their first goal thanks to Mark Costales.

Hopwood’s pressure did not end as the Hilitais delivered two more goals with Izeah Jolo sinking one at the 8th minute mark followed by Costales to give their team a 3-0 lead.

MCS managed to stop the bleeding but only for a brief moment as Costales broke through once again to complete a hat-trick at the 16th minute mark.

Team-mate Jyro Cruz then notched Hopwood’s fifth goal at the 22nd minute mark to extend the lead.

But the Knights did not leave the first half empty-handed as Francisco Maritita fired back just a minute after to break the silence, 1-5.

That was the end of the Knights’ presence as they were nowhere to be seen in the second half during which Hopwood squeezed in three more goals.

Even with Costales not in the frontline on offense, the rest of the Hilitais stepped up to keep the momentum burning.

Soon they found Kian Estolas open for the finish at the 26th minute mark. Minutes later, team-mates Emerson Brillo and Jolo added the finishing touches to secure an easy victory, 8-1.

SIS vs TMS

The second match of the day was won by Saipan International School which defeated Tanapag Middle School 6-2.

Tanapag started strong with Nolan Ngewakl finding the back of the net to give his team the lead.

However, SIS made sure that the Tatagas would not score again for the remainder of the first half while the Geckos slowly took over.

It started when Taiga Namai-Scoggins connected the equalizer and was followed by team-mate Moshe Sikkel who scored a goal at the 5th minute mark to give SIS the lead.

Sikkel then drained his second goal at the 16th minute mark while Namai-Scoggins delivered his second contribution in the 25th minute to extend the gap, 4-1.

After just a minute in the second half, the Geckos bagged their fifth goal courtesy of Sikkel.

Tanapag finally scored thanks to Yutaka Kadokura but the Tatagas were unable to again get past SIS’s line of defense.

SIS' Gyu Hyeon Park then snuck in a goal at the 48th minute mark to clinch victory 6-2.

Published by Marianas Variety - Sep 23, 2021