By Dylan Butler

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey - Andre Toussaint scored a pair of goals late in the first half as W Connection rallied from an early deficit to defeat the Red Bulls 2-1 in the second leg of a CONCACAF Champions League Preliminary Round series Wednesday.

The Caribbean champion won the aggregate series 4-3 and join Pumas UNAM (Mexico), CSD Comunicaciones (Guatemala) and the winner of the series between Liberia Mia (Costa Rica) and Real CD Espana (Honduras) in Group D.

The teams played to a 2-2 draw at Manny Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella last week.

"It's not just a victory for us, it's a victory for the entire region," W Connection coach Stuart Charles Fevrier said. "For us, in particular, this is our 10th year as a club and this to me is the biggest, in terms of significance, victory to date."

John Wolyniec, who started in place of the injured Juan Pablo Angel, put New York in front in the 19th minute. The veteran forward took a pass from Jorge Rojas and slipped a left-footed shot under W Connection goalkeeper Marvin Phillip.

"It's just extreme disappointment," Wolyniec said. "We did a lot of good things. We went down there and got a result we felt good about, came back here and really felt if we got the first goal that would be it."

Angel, the Red Bulls captain, suffered a Grade 2 concussion in the opening minutes of the first leg. The Colombian played the entire 90 minutes, but was examined thoroughly in New York and ruled unfit to play.

Fevrier made a tactical substitution late in the first half, bringing on Matthew Bartholemew as a secondary striker. Two minutes later, Toussaint scored the first of his two goals in the six minutes before halftime, erasing the advantage New York had by scoring twice at Manny Ramjohn Stadium last week.

First the Trinidad international ran at Seth Stammler before putting a low shot inside between the midfielder's legs and inside the far post to level the game 1-1.

Then in the opening minute of first-half stoppage time, Toussaint was gifted a goal, stealing Kevin Goldthwaite's attempted pass to Jeremy Hall at the top of the Red Bulls' 18-yard box. Toussaint took a touch and beat Red Bulls goalkeeper Danny Cepero inside the near post to give the Savonetta Boys a 2-1 lead heading into the half.

"Toussaint obviously was the man of the match," Fevrier said. "Tonight he was great. He's a very skillful player, very talented player. He demonstrated that to me. He definitely was a thorn in Red Bulls' side. I only hope this performance can spur him on to greater things."

The hosts pushed numbers forward in an attempt to find the equalizer, but Albert Celades forced Phillip to dive to his left to push away a first-time attempt from distance in the 63rd minute. Two minutes later the Red Bulls had a corner kick, but were unable to capitalize.

In the 72nd minute, Celades put the ball on his left foot, but the Spanish midfielder failed to put his attempt on target.

Seven minutes later, Sinisa Ubiparipovic put a first-time shot well wide and Matthew Mbuta twice found space in the final 10 minutes, but Philip easily saved his first attempt from the edge of the 18-yard box and his second shot was off target.

When Canadian referee Paul Ward blew the final whistle, the W Connection players poured off the bench, celebrating and dancing wildly on the field. That celebration continued in the visitors' locker room well after the end of the match.

"It's been our first time we qualified for this stage so being excited, we couldn't hold it back," W Connection captain Elijah Joseph said. "Coming here was difficult, playing against Red Bulls at their home and going one down. We never put our heads down. We stuck together as a team."