Kieron Emmanuel scored a beaver-trick as T&T swept past Puerto Rico 11-0 in their fifth to eighth place semifinal at the 2016 Junior Pan American Men’s Hockey Championship at the University of Toronto, Canada, yesterday to set up a fifth place playoff with Mexico today from 12.30 pm.
Emmanuel got his goals in the 22nd, 51st, 61st and 68th minute, while Marcano brothers Teague (1st & 59th) and Tariq (20th & 26th) as well as Kieron’s brother Kristien (4th & 24th) scored two goals each for T&T as they rebounded from a 3-2 main draw quarterfinal loss to host Canada on Wednesday.
Jarryon Paul (6th) was the other scorer for T&T which also crushed the same Puerto Ricans 14-0 in a round-robin pool match on Friday last to set up a fifth place playoff with Mexico, 3-2 winners over Guyana in their fifth to eighth place playoff.
T&T will be hoping to equal its best-ever finish of fifth spot four years ago in Guadalajara, Mexico, as well as in 1985 in Orlando, Florida, USA while it placed sixth in Barbados (1996) and Chile (1981), seventh on home soil in 2008 and 2000 in Santiago, Chile, and eighth in 2005 in Havana, Cuba.
In the main draw final, Argentina which blasted USA 10-0 will meet Canada, 3-1 winners over Chile in the other semifinal, for the lone spot in the Junior World Cup to be held in India in December.