Sport: Goals galore for NZ women in OFC U-19 opener

New Zealand began their quest for a seventh consecutive OFC Under 19 Women's Championship title with a crushing 30-0 demolition of Samoa in Rarotonga.

Kelli Brown opened the scoring with just seconds on the clock and ended the game with an incredible eleven goals to her name.

Arabella Maynard and Maggie Jenkins scored five a piece and were among six other players to get on the scoresheet, while Samoa ended the match with ten players after Paepae Tuitama was sent off in the 42nd minute.

New Zealand coach Gemma Lewis was understandably thrilled with her team's opening performance.

"I was really impressed with them," she said. "In the first game we wanted to go out and we wanted to be relentless going forward and focus on our performance and the girls did really well in that, they didn't let up, they kept going and it was great to see that. For us it was about our performance, we wanted to make sure we are getting something out of the game and for the first game we wanted to put a stamp on it from the start."

Despite being on the wrong end of a lopsided scoreline, Samoa coach Lanuola Mulipola insisted her players had nothing to feel ashamed about.

"I'm still proud of my girls," she said. "I know New Zealand is a really tough team but throughout the game my girls didn't stop.

"They were working together as a team and getting used to each other and kept working as a team. We have to keep positive, it's very important for the next game and also for our last game we have here."

Tahiti thumped American Samoa 7-0 in the other Group B clash on Saturday local time, while a day earlier Fiji beat Solomon Islands 3-1 and host nation the Cook Islands pipped Vanuatu 1-0 in Group A, while New Caledonia outclassed Papua New Guinea 8-0 in Group C.

The overall winner will qualify for next year's U-20 Women's World Cup in Nigeria.