Basingstoke 7 - 1 Cardiff Junior Devils

The Cardiff Junior Devils under 12s coach, Jon Oliver, stepped in at the last minute to coach the under 10s team as they travelled to Basingstoke on Saturday 21st March. The home leg, played in October, had seen Cardiff’s goalie Jake Roberts face a barrage of 86 shots on goal. Eighteen of those shots had found the back of the net, but Cardiff still took the points, as Basingstoke were short of players.

Fast forward six months, and the youngest Devils side, with several matches behind them and much more experience, were no walkover, though Jake still faced a huge task in net.

The Basingstoke players were big, physical and confident, and signalled their intent with an early break through the defence, and a classy goal from Richard Krogh after just 56 seconds. Caught on the back foot, the Cardiff defence nevertheless fought bravely with good work from Jake Burt and Alex Ljungstrand-Byrne on the first line, and Ethan Jones and Lewis Davies on the second line, until the 11th minute when a strong strike from very tall third liner Alfie O’Shea hit the back of the net.

Twice more Cardiff’s 6 and 7 year old third line had little chance against 9 year old O’Shea. A goal at 15.01 was allowed to stand in spite of a Cardiff appeal that there was a player in the crease.

The play was not all one sided, though. Cardiff’s speedy forwards Carter Lloyd, Iwan Williams and Archie Peake combined well for some good moves, as did Ben Morgan, Jay Jones and Thomos Marsh, with Sam Smith, Max Roberts and Riley Lulfs making life hard for the Basingstoke forwards.

Eliot Randall, Iwan Davies and Jake Burt kept up their fine display of passing, while Cael James and Alex forced wave after wave of Basingstoke attackers wide. Jake’s goaltending was once again first class, standing up to several Basingstoke breakaways without flinching.

One final score from another very tall third line player, Jack Grove-White, took the first period score line to 5-0 at the first period buzzer.

A rejuvenated Cardiff team took the play on the attack for much of the second period, with Iwan Davies finding the speed for a great breakaway. It wasn’t his day, though, and his wrist shot was deflected just wide. All three lines managed some great turnovers, with Riley Lulfs notable in the neutral zone, and hard work from Ethan Jones and Lewis Davies to keep Cardiff in the game. The only goal of the second period came in the 43rd minute with a fine chip from Samuel Brooks just wide of Jake Roberts’s outstretched catcher, to take the score to 6-0.

Another fine defensive and goaltending display in the third period kept the puck out of the net, and saw good breaks from Ben Morgan, Archie Peake and Iwan Williams, though Alfie O’Shea managed to sneak another score in the 54th minute to take Basingstoke 7-0 up.

Cardiff finally got off the mark in the 58th minute, with a promising move begun by Jake Burt, and ended with a quick thinking power play goal from Eliot Randall. A trip from Basingstoke’s Samuel Brooks sent Cael James flying and the Basingstoke player to the sin bin. With play back underway, a good pass from Jake Burt in the corner found Iwan for a one timer. The shot rebounded off the keeper’s pads for Eliot to pick up neatly and finish the job. With assists on the consolation goal going to Iwan and Jake, the match ended 7-1 to Basingstoke.

Having faced 54 shots on goal, Jake Roberts skated forward to another well deserved Man of the Match award, while Ethan Jones took his first Spirit of the Game award for a spirited and hard working display in defence.

This was an excellent performance from the young Devils, who have improved beyond recognition and now have a large team which is starting to be competitive with some of the best teams in the league. A very well done to all.

Game Stats

Goal Scorers:	Assisted by:
Eliot Randall	Jake Burt and Iwan Davies

Shots on Goal:	Man of the Match:	Spirit of the Game:
Jake Roberts 54	Jake Roberts	Ethan Jones