PARAMARIBO, Suriname — Jamaica’s Under-17 Reggae Girlz opened the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) World Cup qualifiers with a 2-1 beating of Barbados here at the Dr IR Franklin Essed Stadium yesterday.

Rena Gordon notched a brace in the 22nd and 31st minutes for Jamaica after Nashandi Clarke had sent Barbados in front in the 14th minute.

The win placed the Girlz at the top of Group Four on three points. Host Suriname were leading St Lucia 1-0 at press time in the other group fixture.

It was a fairly even start by both teams as the players took their time to get accustomed to the turf. The Jamaicans settled gradually as the game progressed, but it was the Bajans who grabbed the early ascendancy.

They opened the scoring when Clarke’s firmly struck free-kick from the right of the 18-yard box left goalkeeper Oneilia Yearde no chance.

Falling behind may have been the proverbial shot in the arm the young Reggae Girlz needed as they went on the hunt for the equaliser.

After applying consistent pressure to their opponents defence, the equaliser eventually came when Gordon skipped by Captain Shai Carrington in goal for Barbados and cheekily knocked the ball in using her heel.

And Gordon was at it again nine minutes later with a display of nippy footwork and ball handling skills, beating three defenders before slotting in a return pass from Jody Brown to put Jamaica 2-1 up.

The score remained unchanged at the break as a heavy thunderstorm which came shortly after slowed the tempo of the game as the players had to traverse heavy under foot conditions on the surface.

The Jamaicans continued to assert their authority after the resumption and Gordon went close to completing her hat-trick. The right wing player who started out in the centre forward position watched in despair as her well-struck shot in the 52nd came back off the cross-bar.

The diminutive Brown, who switched to the center forward position, then got in on the action five minutes later, but she too was left cursing her luck when her left-footed shot hit the upright.

The young Girlz continued to create numerous chances, but lacked conviction in front of goal and failed to extend the lead.

Head coach Lorne Donaldson felt the team’s travel scheduled took its toll during the game.

“Well we have to give Barbados some credit because Barbados came out and put some pressure on us and we didn’t respond well and still looked jet lagged a little bit at times. But after they scored we decided to put some pressure on them and got back two goals,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

His counterpart Thomas Jordan lamented the tough underfoot conditions.

“We tried hard; I think the wet conditions were a bit hampering for us and set back our play a little bit. But I thought it was pretty even and I think the better team won. Now we need to win our next two games to qualify and that is our intention,” he said.