T&T, Barbados, SVG suffer heavy defeats

MIAMI, Florida (CMC):

Trinidad and Tobago suffered a harsh 6-0 whipping at the hands of Mexico on Tuesday, to make a dodgy start to their qualifying campaign for the Concacaf Women’s Gold Cup.

Alicia Cervantes (19th, 42nd) netted a first-half brace as Trinidad and Tobago found themselves on the ropes at half-time with half-dozen goals against their column in the Group A game in League A at the Estadio Hidalgo.

There was no recovery for the Caribbean side even though they successfully kept the hosts from adding to their tally in the second half.

Maria Sanchez started the rout as early as the third minute with a superb lunging finish to put away a pinpoint cross into the box from Scarlett Camberos.

Greta Espinoza added a second in the 10th when goalkeeper Kimika Forbes spilled Alexia Delgado’s shot, and she was on hand to poke home from close range.

Cervantes then opened her account, driving a rasping low shot in at the far post from a right angle on the right before Delgado (25th) and Charlyn Corral (39th) stretched the lead even further.

Cervantes grabbed her second just before half-time with a simple tap-in from point blank range after Corral raced on to the end of Nicolette Hernández’s brilliant through-ball and squared a pass into the box.

In Fort-de-France, St Lucia pulled off a massive win when they thrashed hosts Guadeloupe 5-1 in their Group B game in League C, with Arnicka Louis (2nd, 45th, 47th, 80th) scoring four.

The contest was level at 1-1 when Jalna Lepante equalised for the hosts in the 37th but Louis took matters into her own hands, netting again on the stroke of half-time before pumping in another two in the second half.

For St Lucia, the victory was their first, following their defeat to Cuba at home last week.

In Group C of League B, both Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) suffered comprehensive defeats, going down 3-0 to the Dominican Republic and 4-0 to Bermuda, respectively.