UP booters shoot for crown

MANILA, Philippines - University of the Philippines (UP) shoots for back-to-back UAAP men’s football crown when the Fighting Maroons battle dangerous University of Santo Tomas (UST) today in the Season 74 finals at the Ateneo field.

The Maroons, who topped the leaderboard with 20 points on an unblemished five wins and five draws, seek to make full use of their twice-to-beat finals advantage in the 2 p.m. fixture to try to extend their reign.

“I’m expecting a tough match against UST, which is so aggressive. So I told the players not to think about the twice-to-beat and treat it like a do-or-die (game),” said UP coach Anto Gonzales, looking to steer UP to its fifth crown overall.

Ghanaian Aryee Ayi and Azkals U-23 standout Jinggoy Valmayor are expected to lead UP’s assault against the Golden Booters, who are bent on getting back at the Maroons.

“We haven’t beaten UP since last year and our best result was a draw. That (beating UP) will be our motivation,” said UST coach Marjo Allado, whose wards will mix it up with a complete crew after UP already served out the suspensions of four players in their last game against University of the East.

Women’s top seed UST Tigresses also gun for the tiara today against No. 2 La Salle.