Kristien Emmanuel scored a beaver-trick as T&T national Under-21 hockeymen rebounded from a 5-0 loss to ten-time reigning champions Argentina on Friday with a 14-0 clobbering of Puerto Rico when the 2016 Junior Pan American Hockey Championship continued at the University of Toronto, Canada, yesterday.
In addition to Emmanuel, Teague Marcano and Dylan Francis scored two goals each for the Darren Cowie-coached T&T stickmen to move into second spot in the four-team pool with three points from two matches behind the Argentines who swept past USA 9-0 in yesterday's second match. USA defeated Puerto Rico 8-0 on Friday.
Coming off the loss to Argentina, T&T led by goalkeeper Kwasi Emmannuel was eager to put up a big total against Puerto Rico, and within a minute of the flick off Marcano had T&T ahead 1-0.
T&T then had to wait until the tenth minute for its second goal via Francis before Eammnuel got his first some seconds later for a 3-0 cushion while Jarryon Paul made it 4-0 in the 16th minute with another field goal.
The "Calypso Stickmen" then showed they had done their home work on set plays, when the trio of vice-captain Jordan Reynos (20th), Kieron Emmanuel (24th) and Marcus Pascal (27th) all scored from penalty-corner plays for a commanding 7-0 lead at the end of the first 35-minute half.
It took T&T five minutes to add to its tally after the restart with Kristien Emmanuel scoring his second of the match from the outfield quickly followed by items from Jovan Wren (42nd) and Marcano (43rd) for a handsome 10-0 advantage.
With goal-difference likely to come into play ahead of its final round-robin match with USA on Monday, T&T continued to pile on the pressure and despite a brief period of some resistance from Puerto Rico added four more goals through Francis (58th), Che Modeste (59th), and Kristien Emmanuel, in the 62nd and 65th to complete his beaver-trick and the team's resounding victory and ahead USA which also has three points but a goal-difference of minus-one to T&T's plus-nine.
Argentina improved to maximum six points from two matches after it defeated USA and will face Puerto Rico in its final round-robin match on Monday from 12.30pm On Friday in Pool B, Chile whipped Guyana 7-1, and Mexico stunned host Canada 3-2 while yesterday, Mexico met Guyana and Chile faced Canada.
At the end of round-robin play in both pools on Monday, all eight teams will advance to the quarterfinal stage followed by the winners and losers semifinals and final day playoffs for the lone spot to the Junior World Cup to be he;d in India, in December.
T&T has a best ever finish of fifth spot four years ago in Guadalajara, Mexico as well as in 1985 in Orlando, Florida, USA; while it also placed sixth in Barbados (1996) and Chile (1981), seventh on home soil in 2008 and 2000 in Santiago, Chile, and eighth in 2005 in Havana, Cuba.
Tournament schedule
Tomorrow (Monday May 23):
Pool A:
Argentina vs Puerto Rico, 10am
T&T vs USA, 12.30pm
Pool B:
Mexico vs Chile, 3pm
Guyana vs Canada, 5.30pm
Wednesday May 25: Quarterfinals
Friday May 27: Winners & Losers Semifinals
Saturday May 28: Final Day playoffs:
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