Photo courtesy of PAHF / www.digitalcococunt.com

TORONTO, Canada - May 20, 2016 - The U.S. U-21 Men's National Team opened up at their account at the Junior Pan American Championship with a convincing 8-0 win against Puerto Rico.

The USA could have taken the lead in the first minute if it wasn’t for an excellent close-in save by the opposition goalkeeper after Amar Khokar (Valencia, Calif.) took the shot. The USA was dominant from the first whistle and created chance after chance in open play but lacked the composure in front of goal to make their dominance count. It wasn't until Stewart Kentwell (Spring City, Pa.) picked the ball up on the opposing 25-yard line, carried left to right and fired a ball that had too much pace for the Puerto Rico goalkeeper to deal handle converting the score to USA 1, Puerto Rico 0. 

Following the goal, Sean Cicchi (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) started to control the game and after a few warm-up penalty corner flicks on goal, he found his rhythm. His first goal came with a high flick. The USA clearly saw their penalty corner unit as the key to the game. Cicchi would complete his hat-trick before the half was over. It was 4-0 at the end of the first half.

On the other side of the pitch, unnecessary turnovers handed chances to Puerto Rico. Any threat going forward, however, was snuffed out by Ruben van Dam (Valkenswaard, Netherlands) and goalkeeper Nate O’Lari (Orange, Mass.). 

The second half had the same flow as the first. Casey Walker (Ventura, Calif.) and Ethan LaSala (Thousand Oaks, Calif.)had chances but couldn’t take them, while George McGuigan (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) imposed himself on the right side of midfield.

The next three goals all came from Cicchi, giving him a remarkable double hat-trick. The icing on the cake came with just 20 seconds to go as great work from Doug Allison (Westlake Village, Calif.), Casey Khokar (Ventura, Calif.) and finally McGuigan brought number eight for the US.

“It was a solid start for us,” said Rutger Wiese, U-21 USMNT Head Coach. “We could certainly have scored more, and we can play better, but to score eight times the very first game is a huge positive. Now we will prepare for Argentina tomorrow.”

The next Jr. Pan Am for Team USA is against Argentina 12:30 p.m. EST on Saturday. Watch a live here by clicking here. 

Goalscoring