GUYANA’S Under-17 football team, known as the Junior Jaguars rebounded from their opening 3-1 loss to Suriname on Tuesday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, to club the British Virgin Islands 13-0 in their second game of the Caribbean Football Union / CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying competition Thursday afternoon at the Ato Boldon Stadium. Led by their leading marksman Franklyn Parks, who blasted the back of the net on five occasions, the young Guyanese earned their first points in this group which will see only the winner advance to the CONCACAF round of qualifying.
Cementing their claim for that spot were home team Trinidad and Tobago who defeated Suriname 3-1 in the feature game of the double-header card.
After T&T demolished the BVI in their first game 23-0, the Junior Jaguars sensed that their prey were already wounded by the home team so they (Guyana) went for the kill without any wavering thoughts.
Their intention to go for a huge win was recognised when the game was a mere seven minutes old, when Kareem Knights netted the first of his double and thereafter it was a steady trek back to the middle for the BVI to spot the ball for the restart of proceedings.
As witnessed in the BVI’s game against the Twin Island Republic, they are a far way off the standard of the other teams in this group, so far conceding 36 goals; that tally is likely to increase when they take on Suriname in their final game due yesterday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, with Guyana tangling with T&T in the main event.
The desire to sink their opponents as deep as they could was evident in the positive and bubbling body language of the young Guyanese.
Parks comes from a family of footballers, as his older siblings Elroy and Daxton are no strange names to Guyana’s football and the younger Franklyn has already proved his worth for Guyana at this level.
Parks, in tandem with his short but speedy captain and the diminutive Jermaine Fletcher who recorded a helmet-trick, combined to ravage the BVI’s defence, the two accounting for 9 of Guyana’s 13 goals.
Following Knights’ opening goal, there was some amount of resistance by the BVI up until the 23rd minute when Fletcher took matters into his own hands as he scored the next three goals himself; hitting the network in the 26th and 28th minutes also.
Fletcher’s fourth was netted in the 59th minute, Mark Wrong joined the party with a goal of his own in the 30th minute before Parks opened his account four minutes later, scoring Guyana’s sixth goal of the half.
When the halftime whistle was sounded by St Lucian Referee Canaan St Catherine, the scoreline read 6-0 in favour of the Junior Jaguars.
Like against Trinidad who were leading the BVI 10-0 at halftime in their game, the young Guyanese turned up the pressure in the final half, as the opposition did mount quite a few raids on the Guyanese defence but solid defending of their territory by the Junior Jaguars kept their enemy at bay.
Parks opened the proceedings goalwise in the second half when he breached the BVI’s defence and goalkeeper Akeem Pope four minutes on. His effort was followed by Steffon Enoe’s first goal in the 58th minute while one minute later Fletcher achieved his helmet-trick, increasing the lead to 9-0.
Parks was again in the limelight in the 68th minute, Knights completed his brace in the 76th minute with the score reading 11-0 for Guyana and as the minutes ticked away and the dejected faces of the BVI players became more and more evident, the job of the young Guyanese was not over just yet.
Parks ensured that the advantage was further increased by adding two more goals as he inked his name on the score sheets in the 87th and 89th minutes taking his tally to 7 in two games while handing Guyana a comprehensive 13-0 win and three points to be level with Suriname.
Trinidad and Tobago head the table with six points from their two wins while the BVI languish at the bottom without a point.