Day one of 2011 Pan American Games featured two Pool A and two Pool B matches, respectively. Under blue sunny skies, the Pan American Hockey Stadium was full to capacity four matches of the day.
The first match featured the defending Pan American Games Champions Argentina versus Trinidad and Tobago. Argentina came out to a quick start over Trinidad and Tobago off a Soledad GARCIA field goal in the second minute and never looked back--taking a six goal lead at half-time. Behind Noel BARRIONUEVO’s three second-half penalty corner goals, Argentina secured their first tournament victory with an 11-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago. The second match of the day was between Canada and Barbados, who are also in Pool A. The score between Canada and Barbados was also six-nill at halftime, in favor of Canada. Canada was also too strong for Barbados and came away with a 10-0 win. Three goals by Brienne STAIRS and two goals from Thea CULLEY lead the scoring for Canada.
In the Pool B matches, the USA and Mexico played; and then a match between Chile and Cuba closed out the day. Behind a loud crowd of home fans, Mexico battled for possession against a stronger USA side. The USA took an early two goal lead from back-to-back field goals from K. REINPRECHT in the first half; and continued their offensive momentum in the second half scoring three more goals. Mexico persisted on defense, however, and the USA’s fifth goal in the 52nd minute was their last of the match to secure the 5-0 win over Mexico. The last match on Day 1 featured Chile and Cuba. Chile took a quick lead over Cuba off a Manuela URROZ field goal. Despite a dominant Chile team, Cuba prevented Chile from scoring a number of field goals. But Chile was successful at converting penalty corners and scored four consecutive penalty corner goals, two by Javiera VILLAGRA; to earn a six-nill victory over Cuba.
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