(photo by Bob Guerrero)

The Ateneo High School football team won the official first ever Juniors Football title. The last two years of competition was only as a demonstration sport. De La Salle Zobel won the first installment and Ateneo won the second. In the first official tournament, Ateneo finished the elimination round with a 4-win and 2-draws record. The two draws were against nemesis FEU-FERN.

The two teams finished with 14 points a piece but Ateneo was awarded the twice-to-beat advantage heading into the Finals by virtue of having scored one more goal than FEU 19-18.

Controversy struck when FEU protested the twice-to-beat advantage citing tournament rules where it said that teams with equal points at the elimination round would play a Best-of-Three Finals. The Board however, ignored tie-breaking rules that stipulate that the team that scored more goals will be given the twice-to-beat advantage.

A similar incident occurred two years ago when the Ateneo seniors team tied FEU at the end of Season 70 with 19 points each. FEU was awarded the advantage because they scored more goals. The Tamaraws defeated Ateneo in two games to win the crown. The Board and FEU, however, were unaware of this fact.

Because of the precedent, FEU conceded the Juniors crown to the Ateneo High School that beat FEU-FERN 4-2 in Game 1 via penalty shootout.  The UAAP Board declared that Mico Mabanag was named tournament MVP, Jean Clariño was judged Best Striker with 5 goals, and Micah Alampay was the Best Goalkeeper.