Porteria nudges Kaya past feisty Loyola Meralco

OJ Porteria capped his brilliant showing with a dramatic late winner to lift Kaya past Loyola Meralco, 3-2, Saturday night in a thrilling United Football League showdown at Rizal Memorial Stadium.

Relentless on attack all match long, Porteria found the back of the net in the 89th minute when his long-range effort bounced off Sparks goalkeeper Tomas Trigo’s chest and rolled into the back of the net.

It was a heartbreaking end for the Sparks who took the lead twice before conceding two goals in the last 10 minutes on errors.

The last goal was harsh on Trigo, who had a magnificent outing before committing the late blunder that left the Filipino-Spanish goalkeeper distraught at the final whistle.

Kaya improved to 22 points from 11 matches while Loyola remained eight points off leader Ceres-La Salle, although the Sparks only have five matches remaining in their schedule.

Earlier, Green Archers sustained its fine form by edging Manila Jeepney, 3-2.

Robert Lopez Mendy scored twice, including the match winner in the 78th minute, as Archers notched a third straight victory.

Manu Chaffort opened the scoring for Archers in the 27th minute before Mendy doubled the advantage 10 minutes later.

Koffi Kouasi reduced the deficit early in the second half and Southeast Asian Games veteran Arnel Amita grabbed the equalizer in the 74th minute only for Mendy to produce the winner for Archers’ third straight win.

Porteria found Chris Great-wich inside the box in the 58th minute to make it 1-1 but Brad Grayson fired his second goal to restore the Sparks’ lead with a pinpoint header with 20 minutes left.

But everything fell apart for the Sparks in the last 10 minutes.

Clark intercepted a back pass from Anton Del Rosario and beat Trigo in the 81st minute for the equalizer.

And just when it seemed like the two teams were headed for a stalemate, Trigo’s blunder on what should have been an easy save on Porteria’s shot gave Kaya maximum points.