By Carlena Knight
It was a tough opening encounter for the Under-20 Benna Boys in Honduras, as they lost 3-0 to the home team over the weekend.
Playing on Saturday night at the Estadio Francisco Morazan in Honduras, the Benna boys, despite playing a commendable first half of defense could not keep the home team at bay and with a header from captain Aaron Zuniga in the 31st minute, found themselves down 1-0 before halftime.
With a rainy second half in play, the odds were stacked even more against the Benna Boys as the wet pitch hampered the quality of play for them.
However, the home team who also struggled during the wet match, capitalised in the 71st minute, as water stopped the ball in its tracks, yards out from Antiguan keeper, Shahoi Dorsett, giving Jefryn Marcias the opportunity to put the home team up 2-0.
Dorsett did come up with a number of spectacular saves for Antigua and Barbuda but would suffer an injury late in the game which forced him to be substituted.
Honduras would then put the icing on the cake in minute 84, this time from the penalty spot with a shot from Marco Aceituno.
The penalty was initially blown off by the referee but was changed after VAR deemed it to be a foul in the box from Dajun Barthley. Barthley had given up a penalty earlier in the match but that was missed.
This win pushed Honduras to the top of the Group H table with three points, while the Benna Boys slipped to the last-place spot without a point.
Costa Rica is second and Jamaica third, both with one point as they played to a one-all draw.
The Benna Boys will face Costa Rica on Monday in their next encounter at 6pm our time and will battle Jamaica in their final group match on Wednesday.