HASHIM Arcia scored a hat-trick and strike partner Shahdon Winchester a double, as TT Pro League powerhouse DIRECTV W Connection made easy work of Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Club Championship debutants Guyana Defence Force (GDF) 7-1 in a lopsided opening Group 2 match Wednesday night.The comfortable win placed Connection, three-time (2001, 2001 & 2009) Caribbean champions, atop the Trinidad group, which was trimmed to three teams after Jamaica’s Waterhouse FC, who participated at last season’s CONCACAF Champions League, failed to show up for an earlier scheduled match against Antigua and Barbuda’s League champions SAP FC.

The revised Group 2 fixtures will see SAP FC take on the GDF today at the Ato Boldon Stadium before the W Connection and SAP FC complete the group on Sunday from 18:00hrs at the very same Couva venue.
However, without Waterhouse, the show went on for seven-time Caribbean Club Championship finalists, W Connection, who are now one win away from winning the Group and securing a place in the semi-final round, with the ultimate ambition of gaining one of three available berths at the 2015-2016 CONCACAF Champions League.
Connection, last season’s Digicel Pro League champions and the current 2014-2015 season’s second-placed team, will start with a lineup whose average age is between 18 and 25, with 26-year-olds, defensive midfielder Gerard Williams and forward Arcia, the eldest players.
The DirecTV-sponsored team scored twice in a space of two minutes with 18-year-old Akeem Garcia hitting firmly past Guyana Defence Force goalie Derrick Carter off an Arcia feed for a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute.
Two minutes later, 23-year-old Connection prodigy Shahdon Winchester cushioned the hosts 2-0, after seizing a poor back-pass by GDF captain Selwyn Isaacs and letting off a cool finish past a hapless Carter.
Winchester made it 3-0 in the 25th minute to complete his double against the Guyana soldiers. It was after a right-side move by Garcia and a squared pass inside the box by Arcia that Winchester controlled then rounded Carter before hitting into an open net.
Coach Stuart Charles Fevrier’s side added two goals before the break and two more from Arcia in the second half before GDF pulled back a consolation item on the fourth minute of stoppage-time given by Barbadian referee Trevor Taylor.
Arcia snatched his first goal of the match in the 32nd minute with a well-timed volley at the back post off a Jerrel Britto cross for a 4-0 score.
The score-line was beyond GDF by the 40th minute when Britto, who was earlier denied three times by Carter and missed an open net in the second half, executed a half volley past the shot-stopper off a Garcia cross to make it 5-0.
And if for some reason there was the faintest of the hope of a comeback by the GDF, following the half-time dressing room talk by coach Denzil Thompson, Arcia reminded the visitors of the reality by netting his second goal of the night just seconds after the restart as Connection led 6-0.
Arcia later completed his hat-trick to put Connection 7-0 ahead in the 82nd minute with a low solid finish past Carter, who had made second half saves to deny substitutes Neil Benjamin Jr and Colombian Jhon Stiven Lopez. But Carter was unable to deny Arcia who hit from the top of the six-yard area off a perfectly-placed right side feed by Benjamin.
Connection were later unable to keep a clean sheet and the score-line ended 7-1 after Delroy Fraser scored in the 94th minute for the GDF, even winning a broad smile on the face of forward Eusi Phillips, who saw his much earlier second half attempt cleared off the goal line by the head of Gerard Williams.
And to probably ease the disappointment of the GDF, their loss was not the most embarrassing of the 2015 CFU Club Championship opening day.
Don Bosco FC, hosts of Group 4 in Haiti, topped Bahamian outfit Lyford Cay FC 10-0 at the Stade Sylvio Cator, following a 2-2 between Helenites Sporting Club of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Unite Sainte Rose of Guadeloupe.