Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship…‘Lady Jags’ storm into ¼ finals after blanking Cayman Islands

Mar 02, 2020 Sports

The ‘Lady Jags’ continued to carve out their names in the history books when they trounced the Cayman Islands last evening 2-0 in the Dominican Republic to book a place in the quarter finals of the Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship.
The win for the Guyanese have earned them a date with Haiti on Wednesday, the Haitians smashing their way past Barbados yesterday; the scoreline in the USA vs Grenada clash was similar in favour of the Americans, while Trinidad and Tobago squeezed past Puerto Rico 5-4 on kicks from the penalty mark after the two nations battled to an exciting 3-3 regulation and extra time stalemate.

Scorer of Guyana’s opening goal against the Cayman Islands Shanice Alfred (left) and Nailah Rowe.

Aubrey Narine

The ‘Lady Jags’ making four changes to their starting team came out purposeful against the higher ranked Caymanians (16th) in Concacaf and though they were quiet at the start, as the match matured, so did the Guyanese (ranked 23rd) which dominated proceedings.
The opening goal would come in the 24th minute when Shanice Alfred tapped in a rebound off the upright. The Cayman Islands never really threatened the Guyanese in the final third; the ladies in yellow and white moving the ball around as they asserted themselves and took command of proceedings.
On resumption, Cayman Islands looked a bit energetic as they took the challenge to Guyana but that energy soon subsided. In the 55th minute, Nailah Rowe’s long range shot was not gathered cleanly by Cayman Islands goalkeeper Satiah Miller and the loose ball was pounced upon by the alert Aubrey Narine and tapped into the back of the open nets to double the advantage for Guyana, while it was Narine’s third goal of the tournament.
It was virtually done and dusted from that juncture and even though the ‘Lady Jags’ opponents made some changes, they never were able to get their own way against the Guyanese which recorded their 7th win in 8-matches, the loss to Mexico being their only blemish.
Fresh legs were introduced by Head Coach Ivan Johnson in the 76th minute when Tiandi Smith came in for Tori DeNobrega; Jade Vuyfhuis made way for Syndey Puddicombe in the 82nd minute with Shamya Daniel inserted for Samantha Banfield in the 89th minute.
With just two days to recover and focus on their quarter final match against Haiti on Wednesday, Coach Johnson and his support staff would no doubt be working on upsetting the Haiti side which is ranked 4th in Concacaf.
Starting X1: 1 Anessa O Brien, 11 Jenea Knight, 2 Anaya Johnson, 4 Brianne Desa, 13 Shanice Alfred, 5 Jade Vuyfhuis C, 12 Tori DeNobrega, 8 Serena McDonald, 7 Nailah Rowe, 15 Samantha Banfield, 9 Aubrey Narine.
Substitutes: 20 Raven Edwards-Doedall, 3 Jessica Myers, 10 Kiana Khedoo, 14 Hailey David, 18 Sydney Puddicombe, 6 Tiandi Smith, 19 Horicia Adams, 16 Shamya Daniel.
In other results yesterday, Haiti hammered Barbados 12-0, Mexico battered Grenada 12-1, Trinidad and Tobago and Puerto Rico drew 3-3 but the Trinis won 5-4 on penalties.