Hol­land-based teenag­er Levi Gar­cia came off the bench in the 62nd minute to score twice in 11 min­utes as T&T So­ca War­riors earned a come-from-be­hind 3�2 win over St Vin­cent and The Grenadines in their 2018 World Cup CON­CA­CAF Semi­fi­nal Round qual­i­fi­er yes­ter­day.

With the win at the Arno Vale Ground, Kingstown, St Vin­cent and The Grenadines, the So­ca War­riors moved in­to sole pos­ses­sion of top spot in the four-team pool with sev­en points from three match­es, three more than USA which played away to third-placed Guatemala (three points) last night.

St Vin­cent and The Grenadines is bot­tom of the ta­ble with­out a point and lit­tle chance of ad­vanc­ing to the six-team fi­nal round qual­i­fi­ca­tion se­ries which will in­volve the top two teams from the next two groups as well.

Play­ing on a very dry and bumpy sur­face the Ken­wyne Jones-led So­ca War­riors fell be­hind on the stroke of half-time when My­ron Samuel con­vert­ed a penal­ty past T&T goal­keep­er Mar­vin Phillip, who was guilty of trip­ping David Pitt in the penal­ty area.

How­ev­er, on the re­sump­tion, the So­ca War­riors which had wast­ed few ear­ly first-half chances through Jones, got back on lev­el terms when USA-based Jo­evin Jones' left­foot­ed cor­ner from the right side was turned in­to his own goal by de­fend­er She­mol Trim­ming­ham in the 58th minute.

The 18-year-old San­ta Flo­ra-born Gar­cia, who plies his trade with AZ Alk­maar in the Dutch Pre­mier Di­vi­sion, was then sum­moned by coach Stephen Hart for de­fend­er Daneil Cyrus, and nine min­utes lat­er he made an im­pact, cut­ting in from the left flank to score and put T&T ahead 2�1 in the 71st minute.

But with­in six min­utes, St Vin­cent and The Grenadines got back on lev­el terms when a lapse in con­cen­tra­tion from the T&T back­line al­lowed an un­marked An­der­son to cen­tre for an equal­ly free Shan­del Samuel, for­mer­ly of the de­funct Ma Pau in the T&T Pro League, to hit in­to an open net for a 2�2 score.

The youngest T&T play­er to make his na­tion­al de­but in quite some time, Gar­cia would have the last say in the match though, as with eight min­utes left in the match, the for­mer Shi­va Boys' Hin­du Col­lege stand­out, pro­duced an­oth­er cool fin­ish past Christo­pher, af­ter run­ning on­to a ball over the top from Jo­evin Jones, just in­side the host half of the field for a 3�2 ad­van­tage.

The T&T squad held for the valu­able three points and are a win away from book­ing its place in the CON­CA­CAF Fi­nal Round six-team qual­i­fiers.

The T&T squad will re­turn home aboard a char­tered Caribbean Air­lines flight around 2.30 pm to­day ahead of their next match against the same St Vin­cent and The Grenadines squad at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo, from 7 pm on Tues­day night.