This country suffered a second straight loss from as many matches at the UANA Junior Pan American Water Polo Championship after a 2-18 drubbing at the hands of host, USA at the Riverside Aquatics Complex, Huntington Beach, California on Wednesday night.
Coming off a 5-12 defeat to Argentina in the eight-team tournament on Tuesday's opening night, the T&T squad was hopeful of a better showing against the powerful Americans.
However, it was not the case as the USA took the lead early and built on it for the rest of the game for a final score of 18-2 led by a joint offensive effort of three goals each from Thomas Dunstan, Warren Snyder, Tim Simenc, and David Kessler.
Despite being overwhelmed, T&T still managed to force American goalkeeper, Alex Wolf into 22 saves while Sebastian Van Rebken was in the goal for the Alan Too-A-Foo Caribbean boys and made six saves.
USA came out strong to start off the game with three goals by Dunstan, Bryce Hoerman, and Snyder before Kyle Ferrera put Trinidad and Tobago on the board with 30 seconds left in the quarter to make it 3-1.
In the second quarter, USA stepped it up a notch and expanded their lead to 9-1 with Nick Carniglia scoring two goals while Simenc, Snyder, Kent Inoue, and Kessler added one each.
In the third period, Bennet Williams, Dunstan, Snyder, Kessler, and Simenc all found a way past Van Reekan as the USA strectched its advantage to 14-1.
After being held scoreless for the second and third quarters, T&T made a promising start to the fourth when Jonathon Gillette scored early, but the USA answered with four goals by Dunstan, Inoue, Simenic and Kessler for a final score of 18-2.
With the win, the USA improved to a 2-0 record, the same as Brazil and Argentina, who battled past Canada (1-1) and Mexico (0-3), 9-6 and 12-11 respectively.
There were also wins for Puerto Rico (1-1), 9-4 over Peru, now with a 1-2 record after getting its first wins, 4-2 against Mexico in Wednesday's opening match.
And in the Women's Under-19 competition, Canada improved to 2-0 after outplaying first day winners, Brazil 10-6 while host USA blasted Puerto Rico, 21-1.
Yesterday, T&T came up against Mexico while today its plays two matches, first against Puerto Rico (12 noon) and Peru (8.20pm); followed by Brazil tomorrow (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:
USA 18 (Thomas Dunstan (3), Bryce Hoerman (1), Warren Snyder (3), Nick Carniglia (2), Tim Simenc (3),Kent Inoue (2), David Kessler (3), Bennet Williams) vs T&T 2 (Kyle Ferreira, Jonathon Gillette)