USA 5 defeated Barbados 1
Goals: USA - Pat Harris PC 15m PC 22m FG 37m PC 60m, Danny Jordan FG 35m;  Barbados - Aaron Forde PC 41m

Pat Harris scored four goals to lead USA Field Hockey's Under-21 men's team to a 5-1 victory over Barbados to open the Junior Pan American Championships in Havana, Cuba.

"This was a good start for us," said USA coach Nick Conway. "The team played well together and any time you can start a tournament with a victory, you have to be somewhat pleased. Now we'll have to turn our focus to (tournament favorite) Argentina."

The USA will face Argentina on Thursday at the Antonio Maceo Sports Center. Argentina has won the previous seven Junior Pan Am championships.

Also a starter on the U.S. senior team, the 19-year-old Harris put the USA up early in the contest with a penalty corner goal in the 15th minute. Harris added his second goal seven minutes later with another penalty corner goal before Danny Jordan (Camarillo, Calif.) slammed home a goal to close out the first half and give the USA a 3-0 halftime lead.

Harris resumed the scoring two minutes into the second half when he drove a shot past Barbados goalkeeper Lyndell Francis for a 4-0 USA lead.

Barbados answered with a penalty corner goal by Aaron Forde in the 41st minute but all further attempts at the U.S. goal were quickly extinguished by goalkeeper Jeb Saez (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) and the USA defense.

Harris concluded the scoring with a penalty corner goal for his fourth goal of the game. Accustomed to scoring goals in Pan Am competition, Harris scored five goals at the last Pan Am Junior Championships in 2000 and led the USA senior men in scoring at the 2003 Pan American Games including a single-game, 8-goal effort against the Dominican Republic.

The Junior Pan Am Championship serves as a qualifying event for the Junior World Cup scheduled for June 29-July 10 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The top three teams from the Pan Am tournament are expected to qualify for the Junior World Cup.