Tosaint Ricketts scored a hat trick to lead Canada's men's under-20 soccer team past the United States with a convincing 4-0 victory in Kingston, Ont., on Wednesday night.
Canada's victory in the fifth game of the men's U-20 tour earned a measure of revenge after a 4-1 loss to the U.S. in Ottawa last Sunday.
Canada's Keegan Ayre, right, defends USA's Tony Beltran in a 4-0 victory.
(Michael Lea/Canadian Press)
"It was good what happened to us on Sunday," Canadian coach Dale Mitchell told CanadaSoccer.com.
"We learned quite a bit and we went back to playing our strengths."
Canada got on the scoresheet in the second minute of the match, as Ricketts broke past the American defence and fired a shot past goalkeeper Diego Restrepo.
Jonathan Beaulieu-Bourgault scored 17 minutes later to put Canada ahead 2-0.
Ricketts put Canada up 3-0 just nine minutes later with his second goal.
He then completed the hat trick in the 65th minute to make it 4-0.
It was the first hat trick by a Canadian since Niall Thompson in 1991.
Ricketts is now the leading scorer among active youth players with five goals.
"It's always good to score," he said. "That's my job, especially as the lone striker."
Goalkeepers Asmir Begovic and David Monsalve each played a half of shutout soccer to preserve the clean sheet for Canada.
Canada moves on to face the Czech Republic in the final game of the tour at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton on June 18.
