By Roselyn B. Monroyo
Variety News Staff

WEEK 3 of the fall season of the NMIFA Youth Football League was a family affair with Zone 2’s Sharks and Zone 3’s Marlins going up against their sister squads last Saturday.
In the Zone 2 U6 division game, the Sharks of coach Lydia Tan and the Sharks Blue of mentor Mariana Fajardo dueled on the Navy Hill field.
The Sharks played on a soggy field and finished the game with mud and smiles on their faces as the game ended in a draw, 2-2.
The Shark Blue’s Gillian Villagomez scored the first goal of the game in the first half, while teammate Alex Park also hit one in the first half. The Shark’s Steven Martin cut the lead to one with his first goal in the second half and Clayton Izuka tied the game with his goal against a phalanx of Sharks Blue defenders in the last 10 seconds of the match.
Over at the San Vicente Elementary School Field, the Marlins’ U6A challenged their U6B team.
The Marlins (Zone 3) U6B is coached by Nathan Hawley and scored the first goal of the match in the first half.
A few minutes after U6B’s goal, U6A tied the count and scored two more goals in the second half. The final score of the game was unavailable at press time.
In the U8 division, the Marlins White and Green tiff was called off due to lightning and will be rescheduled for today.
The U10 game had the Marlins Green of coach Greg Borja hosting the Sharks of coach Allison Livingston.
Ryu Tanzawa made the lone goal in the game to lift the Marlins to a win. Tanzawa scored the goal on a corner pass from Jordan Butcher-Wade in the first half. The two Marlins Green strikers joined forces anew in the second half almost making another goal before the Sharks’ Jack Sharer made a save.
An all-Sharks tiff was featured in the U10 match on the Navy Hill court with the Sharks White prevailing over the Sharks Blue, 1-0.
After Taylor Knecht repeatedly frustrated Masami Hirai’s attempt to score, the former finally eluded two defenders and gave the Sharks White a goal in the first half.
Over at San Vicente, the Marlins collided with the Marlins White in another U10 game. Mickey Coleman scored the lone goal of the match to lift the Marlins past the Marlins White.
In the U12 division, the Marlins were to host the Emily Gries-coached All-Stars, but the game was postponed due to lightning.
The U12 match on the Navy Hill field went ahead as scheduled with the Sharks Blue of coach Sue Knecht and the Sharks of coach Norman Camacho scoring three goals apiece.
Sharks Blue’s Kasei Toda scored the first goal in the 4th minute.
Shark’s goal keeper Bo Barry did a great job protecting their goal after Toda scored. But RJ Knecht came out of nowhere from the left side and scored the second goal for Sharks Blue. He made his second goal almost at the same spot to give Sharks Blue a 3-0 lead at halftime.
The second half was a Sharks show.
Barry was moved of the goal area and played at midfield. He and his teammates displayed good passing techniques allowing the diminutive Jake Lee to attack Sharks Blue’s defense and score two goals in the second half.
Barry had another great feed to Angelo Jones who eluded Grace Brostrom and scored the game-tying goal.
With about eight minutes left in the game, referee Dean Tenorio suspended the match due to darkness.