It was mission accomplished and then some for Aaron Dennis.
 
Prior to the U.S. Virgin Islands' game at Anguilla on Friday afternoon, the New York Cosmos forward had two goals: to win the match and to score a goal.
 
He accomplished both as The Dashing Eagle defeated Anguilla, 3-0, in a Concacaf Nations League encounter at the Raymond Gordon Ernest Guishard Technical Centre. Both teams already had been eliminated from contention for the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup. The Nations Cup is the qualifying arm for this summer competition.
 
The victory ended USVI's three-game losing streak. The squad last won an international match at Sint Maarten on March 26, 2016 via a 2-1 triumph.
 
"Happy about the win and grateful to have gotten on the scoresheet," a happy Dennis said.
 
James Charles Mack Lii drew first blood for the U.S. Virgin Islands in the 10th minute, The Dashing Eagle’s first tally since the Sint Maarten game. Five minutes later Bryce Pierre made it 2-0.
 
The 26-year-old Dennis closed out the scoring the 86th minute.
 
Dennis, playing in his third international match, latched onto a through ball from a teammate, beat his man, rounded goalkeeper Ryan Liddie on the right flank before tucking the ball into the lower right corner before an Anguilla defender could fully recover. Dennis is of Jamaican ancestry but was born in the U.S. Virgin Islands when his mother worked for JP Morgan in 1993.

Dennis, who signed with the Cosmos in January, will return to the team to continue training with the club and to prepare for its preseason match at Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y., on Tuesday at 8 p.m. and for the start of the National Premier Soccer League season against the New York Athletic Club at Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale on April 27.
 
The Cosmos will participate in three competitions this year. Besides the NPSL, they will play in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup -- the first round is scheduled for May 8 -- and then will perform in the inaugural NPSL Founders Cup from August through November.