TT girls batter Haitians 6-2

SAN JOSE: Trinidad pulled off their first victory in the women’s Olympic football qualifying tournament on Sunday with a 6-2 victory over the battered Haitian team. Both groups fell out of Olympic contention, however. The teams had come from crushing defeats at the hands of the more powerful Mexican and US players. Trinidad’s Natalie Des Vignes opened the scoring on Sunday with a goal in the fourth minute. Des Vignes also fired a shot in the tenth minute that was repelled by Haitian goalkeeper Gina Montinar.

But Montinar had the bad luck of sending the ball to the feet of Trinidad and Tobago player Maylee Attin-Johnson, who brought the score to 2-0 in her team’s favour. Raeann Elder, in her first pre-Olympic contest, scored in the 27th minute. In the 38th, Des Vignes initially failed to score but then succeeded on a second chance when the goalkeeper sent a faulty shot back at her. Haiti’s chance came in the 33rd minute of the match when Fernande Hilaire received a pass and sent the ball sailing past Trinidad goalkeeper Lisa Jo Ramkissoon. The first half ended with a score of 4-1 to Trinidad. In the second half, Des Vignes scored in the 65th minute and Leslie James in the 82nd for  Trinidad and Tobago, while Nadege Beca scored in the 90th minute for Haiti.