Bermuda 2 Sint Maarten 0

Second-half goals from Xahvi DeRoza and substitute Kennahz Fray secured Bermuda their first three points at the Concacaf Men’s Under-20 Qualifiers in Costa Rica on Saturday.

DeRoza opened the scoring in the 68th minute by poking the ball home from close range before Fray pounced on a rebound in stoppage time.

After picking up a point in their opening match against Trinidad & Tobago, the victory moved Cecoy Robinson’s side to third position in group E, behind Trinidad and Costa Rica.

“ I think we could have done better, especially in the attacking phase of the game, but three points is what we needed,” Robinson told The Royal Gazette.

“To secure three points and get to four points in the group now, we just need to keep pushing forward. We knew we needed to win, so for us to get the goals and the victory was positive.”

Having been beaten 12-0 by Costa Rica on Thursday, Sint Maarten kept things tight at the back, which meant Bermuda had to work hard for the goals.

“They sat deep and allowed us to come to them,” Robinson said.

“We had to figure out a way to move the ball and move them to try to create gaps. Eventually, it came a little later than what we would have wanted or what we expected, but as long as we got there, that’s the main part.

“They lost their previous game 12-0. As any coach you wouldn’t want your team to lose like that again obviously, so they had to make some adjustments defensively.”

From the match against Trinidad, goalkeeper David Martin and Fray dropped to the bench, with Daniel Powell and Malachai Belboda brought into the starting XI.

“We made two changes from the starting team that played the other day,” Robinson said.

“Just from what we’ve seen in training and different attributes that players bring to the game. I thought that both players that we made an adjustment with did well.

“Malachai ended up getting a slight knock in the first half, which forced us to have to make a sub at half time as we didn’t want to take a risk. But outside of that, I thought he did well and I thought the keeper did well too.

“We picked 21 players for a reason. The players that we picked are of high quality so we didn’t lose anything by making any of those changes.”

Bermuda came close eight minutes into the encounter with Harlem Bean-Fox’s grounder going wide. Two minutes later, Kalen Brunson’s effort went across the face of goal.

In the 34th minute, Nayan Grant had a go from the edge of the box and his shot sailed wide. Two minutes later, Brunson’s left-footed effort missed the target.

As Bermuda continued to dominate the game, Jace Donawa’s header from Grant’s cross came off the upright. Donawa was then denied by a superb piece of goalkeeping by James Plas Deher, who pushed the ball out for a corner.

Six minutes into the second half, Powell came off his line to make the angle tight for Jhayden York, preventing the Sint Maarten forward from taking a shot at goal.

Khari Sharrieff had a chance on the hour mark with a dipping effort, which was pushed over for a corner by Plas Deher.

Bermuda finally cracked the resilient Sint Maarten defence from a free kick taken by Donawa. Sharrieff received the ball on the back post, laid it at the feet of DeRoza, whose initial header bounced off Gijs Van Ottele’s head, before it fell kindly for the No 9 to hit the target.

Fray finished off the rebound after the Sint Maarten keeper punched Brunson’s powerful shot back into play.

SCORERS

Bermuda: DeRoza 68, Fray 90+1

TEAMS

Bermuda (4-3-3): D Powell—N Grant, L Jimenez, E Peets, M Tear-De Leon (D Coddington, 72) — K Sharrieff, H Bean-Fox (sub: B Borgesson, 64), X DeRoza (sub: Q Raynor, 82) — J Donawa, M Belboda (sub: K Fray, 49), K Brunson. Substitutes not used: D Martin, C Jackson, D Smith-Davis, D Stewart, J Morrison, I Gibbons.

Sint Maarten (4-3-3): J Plas Deher — J Blomont, M Richardson, K Kerssies, G Van Ottele — N Henderson, O Gumbs, T Van Ottele (sub: X Dias, 88) — R Garcia (sub: Z President, 80), J York (sub: T Plas Deher, 88), J Martina (sub: G Lawrence,54). Substitutes not used: J Van De Pas, R Bosse, J Lijcklama, J Mardenborough, J Niles. Booked: Henderson

Referee: K Hernández (Mexico).