Lin­dell Sween scored late in the 82nd minute to as­sure T&T a 1-1 tie with re­gion­al ri­vals Bar­ba­dos, as well as en­try in­to the sec­ond round of the CON­CA­CAF Un­der-17 Cham­pi­onships on Wednes­day at the Es­ta­dio Pen­sati­vo in An­tigua, Guatemala.

Both teams found them­selves in a sim­i­lar po­si­tion fol­low­ing loss­es to Cana­da and the Unit­ed States, how­ev­er, the young So­ca War­riors had a slim ad­van­tage cour­tesy of a su­pe­ri­or goal dif­fer­ence that en­sured they on­ly need­ed a draw to ad­vance.

Last night, both teams were bal­ance in the open­ing half as they trad­ed at­tacks at each oth­er’s goals. For T&T Do­minic Wil­son, Lyshaun Mor­ris and Lin­dell Sween tried in vain but failed to trou­ble the Bar­ba­di­an goalie Jireh Mal­colm, while on the oth­er side the pair of Hare­wood and Roval­do Mas­si­ah kept the T&T de­fen­sive struc­ture on its toes.

How­ev­er, the Ba­jans broke the dead­lock from Shamari Hare­wood in the 38th minute and en­joyed that ad­van­tage at the half-time in­ter­val. De­spite chal­lenges from the T&T team in the sec­ond pe­ri­od of play the Bar­ba­di­ans ap­peared to be head­ing to the fin­ish with the win, un­til Sween, who had been threat­en­ing all match got the sav­ing item for the War­riors.

T&T TEAM

1 Ailan Pan­ton (GK), 2 Jaden Williams, 4 Lyshaun Mor­ris, 3 Joshua Fi­garo, 6 Ay­don Caruth, 12 Je­re­mi­ah Cateau, 7 Rio Car­dines, 8 Josi­ah Ochoa,

9 Lin­dell Sween, 18 Do­minic Wil­son, and 19 Tyrell Moore.

BAR­BA­DOS TEAM

18Jireh Mal­colm (GK), 3 Ajani Ban­ton, 4 War­ren Trot­manc, 19 Ajanie Payne, 20 James Moore, 6 Amego Jor­dan, 12 Kiaros Greaves, 10 Roval­do Mas­si­ah,

7 Shamari Hare­wood, 9 Che Milling­ton, and 11 Chris­t­ian Gill.