...but women lose 3-0 to Chile

On Thursday it was the women and Friday it was Trinidad and Tobago's Under-22 men footballers who put on another praiseworthy display as they held hosts Mexico to a 1-1 draw in a Pan Am Games match before a partisan 35,000 home crowd at Omnilife Stadium in Guadalajara.

Also on Friday night , T&T's lone boxer, middleweight Andrew Fermin, retired in the second round when losing 12-4 to Venezuelan Juan Carlos Rodriguez.

The Trinidad and Tobago hockey men were also in action yesterday against Caribbean rivals Barbados, who they drubbed 11-1.

Quan Browne (3rd) and Mickell Pierre (6th) gave T&T a 2-0 lead before Kris Holder pulled one back for Barbados in the ninth minute. Then, all hell broke lose as Trinidad & Tobago's stickmen scored nine unanswered goals.

By the end, Browne (3rd, 16th), Pierre (6th, 36th), Christopher Scipio (27th, 42nd) and Dwain Quan Chan (23rd, 42nd) had scored two goals apiece. Atiba Wittington (37th), Aidan De Gannes (39th) and Akim Toussaint (60th) each got a goal apiece.

However, after holding the Mexican women 1-1 on Thursday, Trinidad and Tobago's women footballers lost their final preliminary match when they were beaten 3-0 by Chile yesterday morning.

Chile got goals from Francisca Lara (18th, 40th) and Maria Rojas (66th).

The Soca Princesses had lost 1-0 to Colombia in the opening round.

Yesterday, T&T shooter John Robert Auerbach finished 12th in the men's skeet qualification event, while cyclist Emile Abraham did not finish the men's individual road race.

T&T sailor Andrew Lewis was in tenth of 13 positions overall and unlikely to make the medal race after scoring five points in race nine of the men's Laser class event which was held at the Vallarta Yacht Club in Puerto Vallarta.

The first five finishers after ten races of the laser (dinghy) event go forward to the medal race.

On the football field, against T&T's Olympic squad, Mexico used the team which came third to Brazil at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in August.

And although the hosts had 68 per cent possession and hit the woodwork three times, Trinidad and Tobago held firm with a line-up which had only resumed training two weeks ago after a recent break.

Jamal Gay stunned the home team and silenced the fans when he clinically side footed home from close range after Micah Lewis blew past his man before squaring for the lurking T&T striker in the 12th minute.

But the Mexicans soon got into their own and eventually it was the ever-present Peralta who pulled them level at 1-1 in the 30th.

A slow reaction by one of the T&T defenders allowed Mexico to recover an attack on the right of the box. Aquino picked up the ball and found Peralta who did the rest, turning and perfectly directing a left footer into the left corner of the net to send the fans into a frenzy on the half hour mark.

The second half saw Trinidad and Tobago under plenty pressure and defending with all behind the ball except for Gay, who was taken off later in the half with a head injury.

However, the young Soca Warriors held on for a point.

"It was a remarkable effort by the guys. We played to plan, we maintained our discipline and we held them off because they came at us with everything in search of a winner because it was important for them to win this match," T&T coach Angus Eve told Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) media officer Shaun Fuentes after the match.

"I saw this as a very valuable experience for the players because it was a massive and mostly Mexican crowd in the stadium, but we were never intimidated. We kept our focus throughout the match and I thought we competed well, which are some of the things I was looking to see us accomplish here in preparation for the Olympic qualifiers," Eve added.

"We knew we had to start well if we were to be in with a chance of a good result tonight," said Gay. "Everyone knows that Mexico is a dangerous team and they can dominate you if they get on top early. They came at us but we also withstood their pressure well. I'm really proud of our effort and hopefully we can carry on from here for the remaining games. Scoring so early against Mexico was a feeling that any striker would want to experience and I felt that tonight."

Source: www.trinidadexpress.com