THE Miller Lite Barbarians took sole possession of second place in the Commonwealth Football League with a resounding 40 to 0 victory over the Verizon Blaze this past Saturday at the Hopwood Jr. High Field.
The Barbarians were coming off a tough loss to the league-leading Budweiser Predators and the Blaze were unable to put up much of a fight to stop Miller Lite from securing their first victory against one defeat in the 2002 CFL season.
The Barbarians and the Blaze traded possessions early in the first quarter before Miller Lite would stike with a defensive 2-point safety by way of Ben Pangelinan’s endzone sack of Verizon quarterback Joshua Stein. On the ensuing free kick, the Barbarians would start their next drive from their 43 yard line. Seven plays later, 22 seconds into the second quarter, Miller’s quarterback Plas Tagabuel connected with John Ogumoro on a 40 yard touchdown pass. Tagabuel would carry the ball in for the 2-point conversion run and the Barbarians would be up 10-zip.
Verizon’s offense would sputter on their next drive the Barbarians would take over and move the ball on a time-consuming series of downs, culminating with back-up quarterback Eric Lizama hooking up with Ogumoro on a 16 yard scoring pass. The conversion run was no good; however, the route would be on for Miller Lite.
The Barbarians would tack on another score before halftime as runningback Chong Won would scamper in from 8-yards out for a touchdown. At hafltime the Miller Lite Barbarians led 22-0 over the Verizon Blaze.
The third quarter would have Miller score twice. Ogumoro would bag his third receiving TD of the game hauling in a Tagabuel pass and then big defensive linebacker Jack Barcinas would line up as runningback and plow 8-yards for a TD. Both PAT attempts were no good and the Barbarians would have a 34-0 lead.
The final tally for Miller Lite came mid-way through the fourth quarter as Asterio Tawanply would intercept Verizon quarterback Oscar Sablan’s pass and race untouched 60-yards for a TD to make the final score 40-0.
Verizon’s lone potential scoring drive, on the last series of the game, would begin at Miller’s 43 yard line; however the drive would stall on the final play of the game as Miller’s Melvin Tagabuel would recover Verizon’s Sablan’s fumble at the 3-yard line.
Having stellar defensive performances for the Barbarians was Ben Pangelinan with 3 first half sacks and Asterio Tawanply who also had one sack to go along with the 60 yard interception return for a TD.
