Under 14 - 6th October 2007

Oxford 0 - 11 Cardiff

A tentative start to our ’08 campaign, our main aim being to recover the confidence lost with a string of poor results last season. If all goes well there’s no reason we can’t challenge for Div 1 status cme next April.
Suffering a coach sidelined with an injury in the off season and the opener cancelled at he 11th hour – shameful sportsmanship by a team that was awarded a win after their opposition travel despite being short the week before!

Even so the team showed great enthusiasm taking in a lap or so of the car park to warm up, followed by a good work out In the dressing room to get the sweat going. Oxford then started the desperately short warm up clock without making any pucks available. Captain for this first contest Josh Galia took the reigns and led his recruits through a well organised skating and passing drills for five minutes then lines up for the first draw. Dragons win this first drop and quickly gain the Oxford zone only to be turned over and pressured by the well organised and motivated, undefeated Oxford crew. Ben pulls of a decent and sets the scene for Line two to have go. Giacomo wins the face off and Cardiff proceed to knock the puck around looking for a way out finally Luke ‘wee man’ Southwood gets picked up by Keiron Latchford. He skips past a couple of defenders to release Giacomo he slots a pass through the remaining crowd to Ellis Price to open Cardiff’s account at 1:40 – the biggest roar from the bench I’ve heard in a long. Little got in their way from that point, JJ survivied a cheap trip to set up a power play. Dan Mann finishes a dominant zone possession with a Rocket into the top corner from the edge of the blue. Galia brings his presence to bare and powers throught the seemingly feeble resisitance to get the third unassisted, bringing to a close a good stretch of pressure from the Stars which saw Ben Parkinson making some athletic saves and denying them any joy. The period was wound up by mr assist latchford biding his time down the wing while giacomo crashes the net, Keiron puts the biscuit square on his tape for the re-direct passed a goalie who was so lost sat nav wouldn’t have been useless.

The second sees a motivated but chippy Starts team greet the boys, some big hits raise the Cardiff Heckles. They may have been clean but you don’t have to like them all but one where Myles Chapman gets dumped face first into the boards-this one drew no penalty but at least the ref apologised for not seeing it; a first in my book. Keiran extends the lead and a hint of laziness saw the captain follow wee man to the bin. The lines were shortened and a 5 on 3 killed of when the dragons drew a penalty and some offensive pressure took it’s toll. Josh Haslam opened his account in style with two strikes 18 seconds apart to wind up the second.

Third period the Dragons killed nearly ten minutes by practing a neutral zone trap frustrating the stars who had changed net minders the back dishing up some outstanding denials before ‘Poke check’ Price doubles his tally. The home team step up the physical stuff another gear but Cardiff give as good as they get until Oxford’s #73 takes one stride to many and charges into Matty Thomas sending him crashing to the ice with a nauseating hit. Rocket Mann scores on the delayed Penalty but this of little consolation to Matty who misses the remainder with a shoulder injury. The match penalty was the only shadow on a good contest where the lop sided score reflected the drive of the teams rather than the individual abilities. Myles and Josh finish the story at eleven, Ben at the other end earns a much deserved Shut out, the first of hos career turning away all 17 shots.

M.O.M.Owen Griffiths

Spirit of the game: Luke Southwood