Ice Hockey        

AFTER a 6.00 am wake up and a two-hour journey, we were ready to take part in our first away fixture ever. We waited eagerly to get onto the ice at Whitley Bay, a rink that had seen the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall.

The first period didn’t follow the same path as our other fixtures this year, taking a whole 6 minutes for the puck to pass into the opposition’s net. The goal was scored by our captain and president Josh Irish, with the assist by Thomas Wilson.

The second goal of the period came from William Tate on his debut for the team. Will won the puck, swiftly counter-attacked alone, shot and scored against the enemy net-minder.

The opponent team was pressing, trying to get spaces to attack, but fifteen minutes in the game it was our captain that made the goal buzzer sound again. Five minutes later, he scored his third goal for the night, out-skating all of his opponents before executing a rapid shot into the enemy net.

It only took a minute of the second period for the captain to remind everyone why he is a force to be reckoned with. After a beautiful defensive play by Nina Brown and Daniel Rodriguez, Irish got the puck and raised the score to 0-4. Soon, Samuel Stagg got the puck on the right wing, dodged his opponents and with cold blood and a smile on his face scored against the combined efforts of the enemy defenders and net-minder.

Two minutes before the second period ended, during a swift attack, Stagg also assisted our captain with a smooth pass, and Irish increased our goals and his personal record.

The third period started in the same way that the second had ended, with us cheering for our captain scoring a goal. Irish got a pass from Oliver George, and from close range he outwitted the enemy net-minder once more. After 48 minutes, a Kings player, Tim Thomas, beautifully dodged our defences and scored the first and only goal for the home team.

After 51 minutes of play, our captain got the puck while defending and took it all the way to the other end of the ice and scored his sixth and final goal. In the last five minutes of the game two enemy players were ejected with two-minute penalties. Our forwards rotated and took advantage of this, with Wilson, Stagg, Burnham and Irish bombarding the enemy net-minder with shots. It was eventually Stagg who, four minutes before the end, and after a great team defensive play, scored the last goal of the game.

The referee whistled and the game was over. We had won our first ever away game with a score of 1-9. Everyone had given all they had. On the coach back to Leeds all I could see were tired but happy faces. Everyone had played their part, and deserved to be proud. The day was ours, and we are undefeated, and a week later, we have to defend our streak.

Ciaran Lennon and Jason Tzouriadis 

Featured image: Sports Keeda