This one’s for dad!

That was the sentiment from Kemar Roofe after netting his first goal for Jamaica in the Reggae Boyz’s 2-0 win over Honduras on Wednesday night at the Estadio Olimpico Metropolitano in San Pedro Sula.

The 28-year-old Rangers forward was strategically placed in the penalty area to redirect Shamar Nicholson’s goalbound strike to put Jamaica ahead on 38 minutes.

“It’s a special moment for all of us, and obviously myself, getting my first goal for the country, and I want to dedicate this to my dad, because obviously he’s the reason why I’m playing for Jamaica,” Roofe told the media at game’s end.

“I know it’s massive for the team to get the three points, and I think not because of this game, I think it all stems from the game against Canada [on Sunday inside the National Stadium]. We didn’t get the three points but we got the draw, but we came out of that game with solidarity, with belief and we earned respect, as well, from that game and we built on that and put it in tonight’s game and managed to get the three points.”

In the second half the Boyz suffered for a while as the hosts threw everything at them while trying to salvage a point in the game, and hence, their campaign.

But Oniel Fisher doubled the lead and dug Honduras deeper into a hole in the second half, and the Reggae Boyz held out reasonably well to secure only their third victory in World Cup qualifiers in Central America.

It was also their first win in Honduras.

Recalling the moment of his first international strike, the Rangers man said, “What I can recall is that ‘Bowza’ [Nicholson] took a shot and for me as a strker I always want to be in line with the shot or around for the second [ball] because you never know what is going to happen, there can be ricochets and you have to anticipate things and luckily it came my way and I was able to get some contact on it.”

As the ball ended up in the net, the former Leeds United player recalled his next move.

“The first thing is to make sure I’m onside and then wait a little bit to see what the referee does, whether he calls it a goal or not and then it is just proud,” he said.

He said especially as a striker, when a forward plays, he’s expected to score every game or people want him to score every game, “so if you haven’t scored for a bit the pressure is naturally on you, so I was thankful to score the goal and hopefully it is the first of many”.

— Ian Burnett