T&T made a losing start to its campaign in the UANA Junior Pan American Water Polo Championship after going under to Argentina 12-5 at the Riverside Aquatics Complex, Huntington Beach, California on Tuesday.
It was a dominant showing by the South Americans who got three goals each from Esteban Corsi and Carlos Canmosio while T&T goalkeeper Sebastin VanReekan had an oustanding match with 18 saves compared to his opposite number, Woas Cazarozzi, who made four.
Corsi scored the only goal in the first quarter giving Argentina a 1-0 lead, while in the second quarter, Argentina Tomas Manocchip started off the scoring before Justin Bodden replied for T&T to cut the lead to 2-1.
However, the South Americans then added two goals through Augusot Rey and Goulds Coos for a 4-1 advantage while T&T's Aaron Sheppard scored to bring the score within two goals, at 2-4, before Canmosio responded for Argentina with a little over a minute remaining in the quarter to make it 5-2.
In the third quarter, Agustin Vittorio scored for Argentina early on to extend its lead to 6-2, but the never-say-die T&T stayed in the match via a Kidron Emmanuel goal, a five-metre penalty shot, only for Corsi and Canmosio to score two goals apiece to expand their lead to 10-3.
With six seconds remaining in the quarter, T&T's Jonathon Gillette scored to make it 10-4 Argentina.
In the final quarter, Argentina's Martina Guiro and Guido Pogge both scored while Sheppard got his second of the match and the team's fifth for a final score of 12-5.
In other matches, USA defeated Puerto Rico 15-8, Canada slipped past Mexico 16-15 and Brazil humbled Peru 20-7.
And in the Women's Championship, Brazil outplayed Puerto Rico 13-5 with Diana Abba finding the net six times while Canada Crushed Mexico 24-2 inspired by Kyar Christmas's five goal outing, a beaver-trick from Sarah Meyers and a hat-trick by Emma Wright
Today, T&T which faced host USA last night will meet Mexico from 5.40pm ahead of matches tomorrow against Puerto Rico (12 noon and Peru (8.20pm); followed by Brazil on Saturday from 8.20pm and Canada, on Sunday at 5.40pm to conclude round-robin play ahead of the playoffs on Monday and Tuesday.
At the end of the tournament, the top four teams will qualify for the FINA Junior Water Polo World Championships.
Selected match result
Argentina 12 (Esteban Corsi 3, Carlos Canmosio 3, Tomas Mangohick, Augusto Rey, Goulds Coos, Agustin Vittorio, Martino Guiro, Guido Pogge 1) vs T&T 5 (Aaron Sheppard 2, Justin Bodden, Kidron Emmanuel, Jonathon Gillette 1)