There is a little bit more at stake than just beating Bahamas in the World Cup Qualifiers for Zeiko Lewis, there are important bragging rights up for grabs too.

Lewis, and Dylan Pritchard, the Bahamas midfielder, not only play together at Boston College, this year they are roommates as well.

The pair lined up opposite each other for the first time on Wednesday in Nassau, and Lewis said there had been plenty of banter in the lead up to the game.

“It was a little different being on opposite sides, but it wasn’t too bad. It’s not like we hated each other, it was friendly competition,” Lewis said.

“There’s definitely a lot of banter going on before us coming into the game, but we both knew it was all fun and games, nobody took it too seriously.”

Lewis certainly had the better of the first encounter, scoring a fine individual goal and ending up on the right side of a 5-0 drubbing that has all but secured Bermuda’s passage into the second round.

It would have been easy for Bermuda to let up after a first half that they finished three goals and a man to the good, but they kept at it and Lewis said the team had been determined to end the game strong.

In that context it would have been easy for Lewis to feel some shred of sympathy for his roommate, there was none forthcoming.

“No, no sympathy,” Lewis said. “It [the performance] was all about making a statement.

“He’s going to hear every bit of it when we get back to college.”

Lewis made a fairly powerful statement of his own, putting in a performance that justified Andrew Bascome’s faith in him, and came as no surprise to those who had seen his displays against Grenada this month.

Still, Lewis felt he could have played better, and feels that he is only just getting back to his best after a college season in which he spent much of his time battling a hamstring injury.

“I’m pretty happy with how I played, I think I could have done a little bit more off the ball, I struggled a lot with the climate down in Bahamas, but I feel as though I did enough for at least our team to win,” Lewis said.

“I’m enjoying my football. I was injured this year, so I was playing through an injury but now I’m back to full strength, so it’s just about getting fit and getting ready for next season.”