Bermuda Select 0 Rhode Island 6

Coach Michael Findlay was pleased with the great fight displayed by Bermuda Select to keep Rhode Island scoreless for more than an hour before the visitors scored six times in the last 22 minutes at Flora Duffy Stadium on Thursday night.

Eight changes made by Khano Smith on the hour made all the difference, with Noah Fuson notching a hat-trick, Taimu Okiyoshi scoring a brace and Jojea Kwizera weighing in with the other goal for the USL Championship side.

“The group displayed the required fight that we asked them to,” Findlay told The Royal Gazette.

“At times in the past we lacked fight when we needed to, so it was good to see them come together and do that. I think the tactical application was positive, we came in knowing we weren't going to see a lot of the ball, we knew we were going to work on our defensive posture.

“We had a tactical plan and I think they applied it to the best of their ability, which is good. Given that we were trying to lay in wait and look to transition on the counter, we created chances.

“It’s not that we didn't get chances in part portions of the game. We knew we were not going to get a lot of chances and this is a mirror image of what we find in Concacaf, what we’re going to find moving forward in March and in June when we play the World Cup qualifiers.

“We need to find situations where we’re able to execute in those scenarios, because in the second half, we had two or three chances on the break. We got men forward and were in good positions, but we weren't able to execute, and that’s an area of the game that we need to improve on.”

Smith praised Bermuda Select for a great defensive effort in shutting out his side for the better part of the match.

“They defended well and made it difficult for us with a low block,” the former Bermuda captain said.

“It’s just the difference in quality, the players that came on, that’s our starting group. Some of the players that were in that first group are not even signed with us, some of them are on trials.

“The ones who came off the bench are the signed players and those are the ones that played the majority of the minutes for us last year.”

With Julian Carpenter, Daniel Cook, Daren Usher and Jorj Dublin solid on shielding Jahquil Hill’s goal, Findlay’s side had great opportunities to score, with most of them falling for Keyni Mills.

The Somerset Trojans forward hit the crossbar a minute before half-time from a T'syi Showers cross. Eight minutes after the break, Zeiko Lewis sent in a great ball into the box from a free kick and Mills shot wide on the blind side.

Once Rhode Island made the changes, there was nothing substitute goalkeeper Quinaceo Hunt could do to stop the visitors from scoring.

Kwizera opened the scoring in the 68th minute with a brilliant first time hit from Clay Holstad's pass. Fuson got his first goal in the 74th minute with an easy tap-in before Okiyoshi got in on the act three minutes later.

With ten minutes to go, Fuson had his second and he completed his hat-trick seven minutes later. Okiyoshi rounded off the scoring with his double a minute before the end.

SCORERS

Rhode Island: Kwizera 68, Fuson 74, 80, 87, Okiyoshi 77, 89

Bermuda Select (4-2-3-1): J Hill 6 (sub: Q Hunt, 46, 5) – D Usher 6, J Carpenter 6 (sub: T Harris, 70), J Dublin 6, D Cook 6 – E Blankendal 6 (sub: K Sharrieff, 46), J Salaam 6 (sub: A Lewis, 81) – T Showers 6, Z Lewis 6, K Mills 6 – E Russell 6. Substitutes not used: J Symonds, N Carpenter, D Wainwright, J Martin, K Bean, J Ebbin, L Simmons

Referee: A Majors.