WEST Coast Wasps roller hockey team travelled to the North East coast for this year's Under-14 BIPHA national finals in Hartlepool and came away with their heads held high.
A tremendous team performance saw the Wasps get through the qualifying group rounds after a nervous start, losing to Manchester's Chaddy Wildsharks 3-1 in the first game but going on to beat Snaith Stormers 7-2, Middleton Demons 2-1 and Heywood Hawks 5-1 to give the Wasps a place in the semi-final against the winners of Group A, Scotland's Benalty Blackhawks.
Blackhawks, with an average player age of 13, towered above the young Wasps. Early on in the game their size and experience proved hard to handle and they were soon 2-0 up.
Wasps were not going to give up without a fight and team captain Oliver Lomax pulled a goal back just before the end of the first period to make it 2-1. Blackhawks came out strong after the break and soon made it 3-1. Then Wasps' 10-year-old Richard Bentham picked up the puck in defence and rounded several players to beat the keeper and make it 3-2, followed by Lomax with another solo goal to put them level at 3-3.
But Blackhawks stepped up a gear and replied with two quick goals at the end of the second period leaving Wasps 5-3 down.
Lomax got his hat-trick in the third period after some intense end-to-end action and Wasps gave everything they had, with outstanding performances from all the squad. But with four minutes left Lomax received a two-minute penalty for tripping and Blackhawks sealed the game with a sixth goal scored on the powerplay.
Wasps then faced Chaddy Wildsharks in the 3rd/4th place play-off after Chaddy lost to Doncaster's Bircoates Bombers in the other semi-final.
With the score 0-0 at the end of the first period of the play-off, Wasps' Ben Nicholls was first to score mid-way into the second and Chaddy soon equalised. In the third period Wasps took the game to Chaddy with slick passing and positional play and Chris Amone blasted through the Chaddy defence to secure third place and revenge on their North West rivals with a final score of 2-1.
Wasps Squad: Netminder: Greg Ruxton. Defence: Oliver Lomax, Richard Bentham, Daniel Etherington, Ryan Johnston, Mark Amone, James Usherwood. Forwards: Chris Amone, Bobby Caunce, Chris Keating, Ben Nicholls, Darryl Bradford. Manager: Mick Caunce. Coaches: Graham Lomax and Nick Crawley.
Final placings: 1 Benalty Blackhawks (Scotland), 2 Bircoates Bombers (Yorkshire), 3 West Coast Wasps (Blackpool), 4 Chaddy Wild Sharks (Manchester).
Wasps are currently looking for sponsors for their trip to Cologne, in Germany, for the European Championships at the end of September. Anyone interested in sponsoring the team should contact club secretary Mick Caunce on 01253 314638.
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