Super substitutes Adia Gibbons, Nia Christopher and Jahzyiah Samuels came off the bench to play an integral role in Bermuda’s five-star performance against Curaçao in their opening Concacaf Caribbean Women’s Under-20 qualifier at the National Stadium last night.

Gibbons set up Bermuda’s winner and completed the 5-1 rout with the their fifth with virtually the last kick of the game, while fellow substitutes Christopher and Samuels also got their names on the scoresheet.

Deshae Darrell and Teyah Lindo accounted for Bermuda’s remaining goals while Kiara Snel scored Curaçao’s consolation and arguably the best goal of the night.

Curaçao’s crushing defeat was compounded by the loss of striker Staygin Stephens who was stretchered off and taken by ambulance to hospital with a knee injury.

Stephens was injured in a tackle late in the game with Bermuda leading 2-1 and her loss had a devastating effect on her team-mates who dropped their guard and conceded three goals in the final ten minutes.

A physically superior and aggressive Bermuda issued a statement of intent as they went straight for the jugular from the kick off, bombarding their opponent’s goal with waves of attacks. But for all of their dominance Bermuda had nothing to show for it at the interval with Curaçao clinging on for life.

The closest Bermuda came to breaking the deadlock during the opening stanza was when an attempted clearance by Lishanty Guillermo, the Curaçao goalkeeper, rebounded off Darrell’s body and rolled just wide of the near post.

Stoic defending by a well-marshalled Bermuda defence limited Curaçao to shooting from long distance and on the one occasion they did break through Micah Pond, the Bermuda goalkeeper, easily saved Shade Sabina DeSir’s effort from close range.

After a goalless opening 45 minutes the game exploded into life with Bermuda striker Darrell breaking the deadlock with a calm finish from a breakaway.

Darrell ran onto a defence-splitting pass from Evra Frazzoni, the Bermuda captain, and used her strength to shield off a defender before firing past Guillermo. Curaçao nearly responded immediately but were denied when Pond raced off her line to thwart Desire on a breakaway. However, Bermuda would not be as fortunate moments later as Snel arrowed in a shot from an acute angle after some slack defending on a set piece from the home team allowed the forward just enough space to inflict damage.

Bermuda regained the lead with Gibbons having a major say in the goal with her first touches of the ball just seconds after coming on.

The forward broke away down the right flank and her pullback into the middle was tapped in by Lindo, lurking just above the penalty spot.

The game then opened up with both teams creating chances but took a dramatic turn after Stephens’s misfortune as Bermuda opened the floodgates and pulled away out of sight.

Christopher effectively ended the match as a contest when she rifled a shot past Guillermo, who was left exposed on a counterattack to make it 3-1. Samuels drove in Bermuda’s fourth with a sublime strike before Gibbons put an exclamation mark on the home side’s dominant display with a close-range finish on the final whistle.