Malta U-17 trounce Latvia 34-3 in European qualifiers opener

The Malta U-17 waterpolo national team were off to a storming start in the European Championship qualifiers when they demolished Latvia 34-3 at the National Pool.

As the scoreline clearly shows this was a no-contest as the Maltese youngsters were of a different class to their opponents, scoring at regular intervals throughout all four quarters to record a comprehensive victory.

Elijah Schembri led Malta’s scoring with six goals while Jayden Cutajar and Julian Chircop found the opposing net five time.

 Sam Engerer and Luigi Dimech added four goals apiece. Jayden Cassar and Dean Bugeja both scored a hat-trick with the other goals coming from Julian Valletta, Gabriel Bonavia, Zak Cutajar Licari and Enrico Mallia.  

The match was as good as over by the end of the first session when the home side had already opened a commanding seven-goal lead.

Jayden Cutajar, who was in the senior squad for last week’s World Cup qualifiers, netted a brace with the other scorers for the home side being Dean Bugeja, Elijah Schembri, Luigi Dimech, Julian Chircop and Julian Valletta.

The second session kept the same script as the Latvian failed to be of some sort of threat to the Maltese defence.

In fact, the Maltese managed to add eight more goals through a brace each from Luigi Dimech and Jayden Cassar brace and further goals as well as Elijah Schembri, Sam Engerer, Julian Chircop and Jayden Cutajar to change ends 15-0 ahead.

The goals kept flowing in the third quarter with Malta managing to find the net no less than 11 times.

There was some scant consolation also for Latvia who finally notched their first goals through Nikita Jegorovs and Marjans Mihnovics but they still trailed the home side by a mammoth 26-2.

The only interest in the final session was the margin of victory for the home side and the Maltese boys continue to bang in the goals, netting eight times against Latvia’s only netting to round up a resounding victory.

Malta will be again in action on Friday when they face Poland at 6.30pm.