England-born Josiah Kallicharan fired in a hat-trick to lead T&T Under-17s to a 9-0 thumping of Sint Maarten on Thursday night to move within a win of qualifying from Group B of the Concacaf Under-17 Championship Qualifiers at the Estadio Nacional in San Jose, Costa Rica, to the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar, later this year.
Going into their penultimate match of the five-team round-robin group series from which only the winner qualifies to the World Cup, the Shawn Cooper-coached T&T U-17s, who drew their opener with Guyana 1-1 but then whipped the British Virgin Islands 3-1 needed to score as many goals as possible, should the battle for top spot come down to goal difference.
However, early on in the contest, it was not going according to script for T&T against Sint Maarten who had conceded 19 goals in their first three matches as the score remained goalless after 30 minutes of play.
But, with six minutes to go before the half-time interval, Kallicharan of Eastbourne Borough FC finally broke the deadlock for T&T, after latching onto a ball over the top from Adam Pierre while New England Revolution Academy's Sheridan Mc Nish made it 2-0 in the 43rd after pushing in a rebounded ball off the post following Caden Trestrail's initial attempt.
Kallicharan struck again in the 49th, tapping home a right-sided centre from Criston Gomes with his right foot and then in the 73rd, he showed his allround ability with a left-footed finish from Trestail's left-sided centre to secure his hat-trick.
The Soca Warriors added five goals in the closing moments through Pierre with perhaps the goal of the match, a thunderbolt of a strike from about 25 yards out in the 85th minute, followed by close-range finishes from Timothy Valentine (86th), Gomez (88th), Trestrail (90'+1) and Nikosi Foncette (90'+6) to complete the one-sided contest.
With the win, T&T moved to seven points from three matches, the same as Costa Rica, who lead on goal-difference after dropping their first points in a 2-2 draw with Guyana and whom Cooper's men meet in their final round-robin match on Sunday, with nothing less than three points needed to secure their World Cup spot.
In Thursday's second match, Costa Rica took the lead in the first minute via an own goal from Max Robinson caused by an Isaac Badilla pass towards the middle of the penalty area, but seven minutes before the half-time whistle, defender Joshua Morris tied the encounter for Guyana with a header in the box on a corner kick.
Two minutes before the interval though, the host went back ahead when Marcus Brown restored the lead with a left-footed free kick to lead 2-1 at the break.
The Golden Jaguars were back on level terms in the 54th minute off another corner kick opportunity, this time with a header from Shaquan David after which both teams failed to get the winner to set up an interesting final match day, with Guyana, third on five points facing British Virgin Islands in the opener from 6 pm on Sunday.
Thursday's results:
Group A
Canada 7 vs Curacao 1
Bermuda 5 vs Turks & Caicos 0
Group B
T&T 9 (Josiah Kalicharan 36th, 49th, 73rd, Sheridan Mc Nish 43rd, Adam Pierre 85th, Timothy Valentine 86th, Criston Gomez 88th, Caden Trestrail 90+1, Nikosi Foncette 90+6) vs Sint Maarten 0
Costa Rica 2 (Max Robinson o.g 1st, Marcus Brown 43rd) vs Costa Rica 2 (Joshua Morris 38th, Shaquan David 54th)
Group C:
Nicaragua 4 vs Dominica 1
Mexico 6 vs Barbados 0
Group E
Haiti 3 vs Antigua & Barbuda 0
Guatemala 5 vs St Vincent and the Grenadines 0
Group B standings
Teams*P*W*D*L*F*A*Pts
Costa Rica*3*2*1*0*19*2*7
T&T*3*2*1*0*13*2*7
Guyana*3*1*2*0*6*3*5
BVI*3*1*0*2*5*8*3
Sint Maarten*4*0*0*4*0*28*0
