Back on the winning track

Fertiberia Balonmano Puerto Sagunto beat BM Contazara Zaragoza (34-25) on the seventeenth matchday of the Men’s Silver Honour Division and maintain a perfect home record at the Pabellón Port de Sagunt. It was also the first victory for the new coaching staff, Sergio Mallo and Manu Etayo.

The home side’s starting seven featured Paco Ruiz and Gonzalo Pérez on the wings, the latter replacing the unavailable Jakob Pelko. Dani Martínez, despite starting on the bench, came on in the first minute to save a seven-metre throw from former red-and-white player Álex Plaza. Alberto Serradilla did score from the penalty spot, and his goal was followed by a save from Juani Villarreal and two transition goals from Antonio Capitán, putting the score at 3-0 after barely three minutes. The Maños quickly levelled the score (3-3), largely thanks to experienced goalkeeper Jorge Gómez’s effectiveness between the posts. In the eighth minute, the Portuarios used their first numerical advantage to score again after five minutes without doing so and put together a 2-0 run. However, Álex Pozzer’s suspension in the tenth minute allowed the visitors to restore parity (6-6).

Two counter-attack goals from Gonzalo Pérez restored the +3 lead (10-7) and forced Zaragoza coach Mariano Ortega to call his first timeout just after the halfway point of the first half. The home side had the chance to extend their lead to four goals but squandered it, and a transition goal from Diego Monzón reduced the difference to two. Another suspension, this time for Erik Eriander in the 21st minute, was again exploited by the Valencians with a 2-1 run, maintaining a constant three-goal difference. Between the 24th and 27th minutes, new maximum leads of +4, +5 and +6 were established, creating a substantial gap. The Aragonese side remained stuck on eleven goals for a long spell. In the final minute of the first half, Sergio Mallo called his first timeout to prepare the final attack before the break, which arrived with the score at 17-12.

After the restart, the opening minutes were marked by an exchange of goals, a pattern that clearly favoured the home side. The visitors could not reduce the deficit, hampered by inaccuracies and repeatedly finding Dani Martínez between the posts. The new maximum lead, +7 at 22-15 in the 38th minute, forced Mariano Ortega to stop the match again. The red-and-whites’ main attacking weapon in the second half was their link-up with pivots David García and Álex Pozzer. Not even the latter’s second suspension, in the 40th minute, gave the visitors enough momentum to glimpse a possible reaction.

Dani Martínez eventually shut up shop and left the match all but decided with ten minutes remaining. Javier Olivares took centre stage with two goals that increased the difference to +9 (29-20). The final minutes gave two players from the Primera Nacional reserve side, Marcos Castañeda and Macrino Pérez, time on court, with the latter making his official first-team debut. The final score was 34-25.

With these two additional points (24 in total), Fertiberia Balonmano Puerto Sagunto will remain in the Liga Nexus Energía ASOBAL promotion play-off places for another week, regardless of what happens in the rest of the round.

The next fixture will be midweek, on Wednesday 28 from 20:00, when the red-and-whites host Balonmano Servigroup Benidorm in the postponed fourteenth-round match, suspended in December because of AEMET’s red alert.

MATCH DETAILS:

Fertiberia Balonmano Puerto Sagunto (34): Juani Villarreal (-), Marcos Castañeda (-), Olivares (2), Paco Ruiz (1), Dani Martínez (-), Pozzer (4), Arnau Fernández (3), Gonzalo (2), David García (2), Matheus de Novais (3), Macrino Pérez (-), Serradilla (4), Capitán (6), Zungri (1), Carlos Martín (4), Teixidor (2).

BM Contazara Zaragoza (25):  Juan Martínez (5), Enrique Camas (1), Daniel Villén (-), Álex Plaza (4), Jorge Gómez (-), Rafa Val (1), Marcos Andrés Ara (2), Jorge Ortega (3), Mario Hernández Mimbela (4), Erik Eriander (1), Jon Ander Iribar (1), Bruno Della Ratta (1), Álvaro Acosta (-), Alejandro Sanz (-), Diego Monzón (2), Álvaro del Valle (-).

Referees: Jesús Luqeu López and José David Sánchez Martínez.

Suspensions:  Alex Pozzer and Erik Eriander twice; Alberto Serradilla, Antonio Capitán and Diego Monzón for two minutes, and Mariano Ortega with a yellow card.

Score progression: 3-1, 5-3, 8-7, 12-9, 15-11, 17-12 (half-time); 20-14, 23-16, 25-19, 27-20, 30-22 and 34-25 (full-time).

Match events: Match from the 17th round of the Men’s Silver Honour Division, played at the Pabellón Port de Sagunt in front of approximately 1,400 spectators. Before the match began, a minute’s silence was observed for everyone who died in the various train accidents during the week, and our academy player Alejandro Morgado, recently a runner-up at CESA 2026 with the Valencian Community under- team, was tasked with taking the ceremonial kick-off.

Translation produced using artificial intelligence.