It was Adrian Gallardo’s turn to shine for Ceres-La Salle Tuesday night as the Spanish striker fired four goals to spark a 5-0 win over Pachanga in the United Football League at Rizal Memorial Stadium.
Rested in the 6-1 demolition against Loyola Meralco, Gallardo summoned his fiery form as he increased his goal haul to 15 goals this season.
Gallardo got Ceres off to a dream start, firing home from the far post off a corner kick from Bienvenido Maranon in the 4th minute. Lee Jeong Woo added a late fifth goal for Ceres-La Salle which takes a two-week break before facing Green Archers United.
More importantly, Ceres jacked up its lead at the top to eight points after pushing its total to 30 points this season.
“Adrian didn’t play versus Loyola so he wanted to play so bad and he showed his quality in this game,” said Ceres coach Ali Go.
“We played well in the first half but I didn’t want them to be overconfident. We have six matches to go but we have two important matches against Archers and Kaya so we should be focused.”
Earlier, the Sparks bounced back with an emphatic 4-0 triumph over Team Socceroo.
Phil Younghusband bagged a brace sandwiched by an early strike from Graham Caygill and a stoppage time strike from Lee Joo Young.
The Sparks improved to 22 points after picking up just their seventh win in 11 games. Socceroo remained in ninth spot with just four points.
But Loyola coach Simon McMenemy was far from satisfied over his team’s performance.
“It was a very sloppy performance especially in the second half,” said McMenemy. “We dominated the game but we took the foot off the pedal and allowed the game to stretch. We just cant keep doing that.”