Barbados women fall to T&T

Barbados women slipped to a 2-1 defeat to Trinidad and Tobago In a tightly contested match on day four of the Junior Pan Am Hockey Challenge at the Wildey Hockey Centre on Tuesday.

Goals from Natania Rowe in the 13th minute and Robyn Dash in the 20th minute put the visitors up 2-0 before Barbados responded in the 36th minute with a goal from star player Steere De Koning.

However, Barbados failed to find the crucial goal to eke out a stalemate in the contest, and crashed to their second defeat of the competition to lie third on three points.

Unbeaten Mexico and Puerto Rico top the standings on nine points.

Both Barbados and T&T displayed moments of brilliance early on without making a major impact. For their part, Barbados used De Koning at the centre of their strategy but this failed to pay dividends as she was often forced to bring the ball from defense to attack on her own, limiting her effectiveness.

Nevertheless, Barbados proved threatening and created promising chances but despite this, it was T&T, with a superior passing game, who got on the scoresheet first.

Dash swept a pass from well beyond the centre line out to the left side where Renallia Constantine collected after Barbadian Keimah Alleyne just failed to intercept.

Constantine then played a short pass into the shooting circle for Rowe to squeeze past goalkeeper Ysobel Jones.

Up 1-0 at the first interval, the Trinidadians doubled their lead when Dash scored from a well worked penalty corner, leaving Barbados to chase the contest, down 2-0 at half-time.

They finally hit back when Tashaunte Weekes found De Koning also from a penalty corner and she converted.

Meanwhile, Guyana suffered a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of the Puerto Ricans through goals from Anna Kosek (30th, 44th) and Teressa Reed (43rd).

The scoreline could have been much worse for Guyana were it not for the brilliance of their goalkeeper Abby Escudero who pulled off a series of remarkable saves and helped her side to defend an amazing 14 short corners.

Guyana’s men also put up a good fight before going down 1-0 to Venezuela, with Yonmaikel Oviedo scoring the decisive goal in the 55th.

The Guyanese had earlier dominated the first quarter with sharp play and strong defensive stands before Venezuela came to grips and countered with aggressive attacking play.

On Monday, winless Barbados men also suffered a 1-0 defeat to the Venezuelans, and will now take on Brazil on Tuesday.

They lie one from bottom of the standings on a single point earned from a 1-1 draw with T&T on Sunday.

(BT)