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U.S. wins U20 title

The United States struck twice within an eight-minute span midway in the second half to break open a close game and record a 4-0 win over Mexico to capture the CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship for a third straight time on Sunday.

Both teams already had qualified for the FIFA U-20 World Cup, which will be hosted by Canada this summer.

The U.S. team, which includes Milford’s Morgan Andrews, completed the competition with a perfect 5-0-0 record, outscoring their foes, 29-0. The champions scored in the first half through Andi Sullivan and got second-half tallies from Savannah Jordan and Margaret Purce, as well as an own-goal, at Truman Bodden Stadium.

There were only a handful of scoring chances for both teams in the opening half and the U.S. capitalized on a rare occurrence in the ninth minute. Sullivan, a high school senior, delivered an in-swinging corner kick toward the upper right corner of the net that Mexican goalkeeper Cecilia Santiago tried to punch away, but could not prevent from entering her goal.

The Americans doubled their lead in the 60th minute, as Jordan connected in her fifth consecutive tournament game to give her five goals, slotting home a Stephanie Amack feed from the top of the penalty area into the far left corner.

Shortly after coming on as a substitute, Purce made it 3-0 as she headed a Summer Green feed from 8 yards in the 68th minute.

Mexico had an opportunity to break the Americans’ shutout streak after it was awarded a penalty kick, but Briana Campos fired the ensuing penalty off the left post and the U.S. managed to thwart its rival from putting in the rebound.

The Americans added a fourth goal when Mexican defender Nancy Antonio accidentally put a Mallory Weber cross into her own goal in the third minute of stoppage time.

On the way to the final, the U.S. defeated Costa Rica (6-0), Jamaica (3-0) and Guatemala (10-0) in the group stage, before besting Trinidad & Tobago (6-0) in the semifinals to clinch a FIFA berth.

The Mexicans beat the Cayman Islands (6-0), Honduras (10-1) and Trinidad & Tobago (3-0) in the group matches, before topping Costa Rica in the semis (3-1).