La Salle celebrates after scoring a goal against UST in the UAAP men's football tournament. UAAP Media.
MANILA -- Mohammad Almohjili and Mikio Umilin scored sensational goals as De La Salle University outlasted University of Santo Tomas, 3-2, in the UAAP Season 85 men's football tournament on Sunday at the UP Diliman Football Field.
The Green Booters went down twice in the match after Archie John Belluga found the back of the net in the 40th and 59th minutes. But two goals in the last 15 minutes gave La Salle a stunning victory.
Almohjili scored off a fantastic free-kick in the 78th minute to level the score at two goals each for both teams. Umilin then executed an amazing solo run and put the ball at the back of the net in the 79th minute.
"That's a good combination," said La Salle coach Hans-Peter Smit. "We didn't change anything the whole year, we just kept them together. That alone is already the two-man combination, and it's up to Mikio and Mo to make the feed for whoever will receive."
Paolo Gabriel Go unleashed a spectacular long-range effort to score La Salle's first goal in the afternoon in the 54th minute.
The result allowed La Salle to increase its tally in the standings to 13 points on the back of four wins, one draw, and two losses to momentarily take the top of the table. On the other hand, UST has seven points to remain at sixth after two wins, one draw, and four losses.
"You can see that the attitude, the will to win was all there," said Smit. "They never let up. Twice down and in a span of a minute or two, two goals. We hit UST hard when they were still down. They were leading for quite a time and then we scored. We can see that their defense did not make any move anymore. That's why Mikio was able to score that goal."