by LeVaughn Flynn, Staff Reporter

Jamaica's Matthew Williams (right) attacks Tariq Kelly of The Bahamas during the CARIFTA Water Polo Championships at the National Stadium Pool yesterday. Jamaica won the bronze after a 12-3 victory. - LeVaughn Flynn

There was the home advantage and loud cheers from the fans but it would have taken much more than that yesterday for Jamaica to win the girls' 18 and under CARIFTA Water Polo Champion-ships title against three-time champs Trinidad and Tobago at the National Stadium Pool.

The attacking-minded T&T were better in every aspect as they crushed Jamaica 16-2 to win the title.

At the end of the first quarter they were only leading 2-0 but with swift counter- attacks they were up 10-0 at the half with Kelcie Ferreira scoring four goals and Adana Welch-Phillips scoring three in the second period. Jamaica didn't score until the third quarter courtesy of Gabrielle Mesquita, who also scored again in the fourth quarter.

Despite the blowout, Jamaica's Hungarian coach David Hanczar said he was satisfied with the team's performance.

"I'm happy for the silver," he said.

Trinidad coach Andrew Francis was diplomatic in victory.

"Playing for a medal is always a challenge - it's much different than the preliminaries," said Francis. "But we just had the confidence that we beat them before and we can do it again. I knew we had faster swimmers and we kind of utilise that."

Jamaica won a second medal in the boys' 18 and under group when they beat The Bahamas 12-3 for the bronze.

Jamaica, who were in charge from the beginning, had quarterly leads of 2-1, 7-1 and 9-1 before letting in two late goals for a 12-3 finish.

Jamaica coach Nakemo Mattocks said he instructed his team to take advantage of their opponents' indiscipline on defence.

"We told them to press them because we noticed they weren't swimming back and we had an easy field to go up to and play offence," noted Mattocks.

Bahamas coach Laszlo Borbely, the Hungarian who was in charge of the national water polo teams up to last year, said: "It was a very interesting feeling. Of course, I would like my team to beat Jamaica but at the same time I see some of my formations being used by them and some of the players I developed when I came here played really well."

Jamaica got their goals from captain Justin Taylor (3), Alva Walters (2), Matthew Williams (2), Jonathan Hernould, Stefan Nelson, Nichoals Jones, Zawdie Coke and Adrian Fisher.

In the boys' 18 and under championship game, Curaçao beat Trinidad and Tobago 6-4.