BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — Past champions Haiti got Group One of the Caribbean Football Union Caribbean Cup up and running in style, with a 7-0 drubbing of St Martin on Friday night.

Playing at the Stade Sylvio Cator in Port-au-Prince, the hosts sprinted to a 5-0 lead at half-time before easily wrapping up the points in the final stanza.

They were led by Peguero Jean Philippe, who scored a hat-trick, with goals in the fourth, 40th and 45th minutes.

Jean Monuma added the second goal in the 22nd minute and also netted the fourth, just two minutes before the break.

The rout was completed when Kevin Le France banged in his only goal in the 70th minute and Jean Alexandre got on the scoresheet in the first minute of stoppage time.

Haiti won the 2007 Caribbean Cup after beating Trinidad and Tobago in the final in Port of Spain.

In the preceding game at the same venue on Friday, Puerto Rico got a late goal from Hector Ramos to snatch full points in their contest.

Following a goalless first half, Joseph Marrero put Puerto Rico ahead in the 63rd, a strike that was cancelled out by Antwan Russell in the 83rd.

In Group Three in Martinique, the hosts thrashed Montserrat 5-0 to win their second straight game, following their 17-0 thumping of British Virgin Islands on Wednesday.

Kevin Parsemain, who scored six goals against BVI, scored four this time around getting on the scoresheet in the fifth, 20th, 59th and 61st minute.

Steve Gustan was on target in the ninth.

In the opening game of the doubleheader, Suriname brushed aside the BVI, 4-0, with Russell Stefano getting a brace following strikes in the 35th and the 42nd.