Bermuda made a winning start to their Caribbean Under-20 Championship campaign with a 3-0 victory over Cayman Islands in Haiti yesterday.

Two goals from Liam Evans, the team’s captain, and a strike from Jaz Ratteray-Smith handed Bermuda a convincing win in their opening match in group four.

Coach Kyle Lightbourne’s side will look to build on their performance when they face host nation Haiti tomorrow night.

“We’re very happy with the result,” Lightbourne said. “It was very hot and the conditions sapped. The boys were a bit fatigued towards the end.

“I thought we played OK and I’m delighted with the clean sheet.”

Bermuda opened the scoring in the nineteenth minute through Evans, the Hood midfielder, who struck an effort from 20 yards after good work by Jahkari Furbert.

Smith, the Somerset Trojans winger, doubled Bermuda’s advantage in the 56th minute after he was picked out by a long pass from Rai Sampson.

Evans bagged his brace in the 87th minute with a close-range finish. “We’re here to qualify, that’s our aim and we’re confident of doing that,” Lightbourne said.

In last night’s second game Haiti thumped Anguilla 8-0. The host nation took 20 minutes to score their first goal, but were 4-0 up at half-time.

Bermuda face Haiti tomorrow for what is likely to be the group decider in a competition acting as the first phase of qualifying for the Under-20 World Cup.

The first three groups have already been decided with Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago finishing top to advance to the final round to be in held in Curaçao in October.

The best three runners-up from the four groups will also qualify. Saint Lucia have already secured their stage passage, having taken seven points from their three games, while Cuba and Dominican Republic both finished on six points.

Bermuda: J Hill, A Simons, R Sampson, T Harris, J Furbert, A Lewis, D Jones Jr, L Evans, J Rattery-Smith, O Bascome, T Tyrell. Substitutes: D Bell, Z Bowen, N Rego, J Swan, J Richardson-Martin, D Dowling, C Neal