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Littlehampton Tigersharks (9) Shoreham Stingrays (5)

Cooke and Waite-Jones Sink Stingrays

Littlehampton Tigersharks (9) – Shoreham Stingrays (5)

10/02/2018 – Game 2 DMWP 13 & Under League

The Littlehampton Tigersharks visited the Shoreham Stingrays in a tough, hard-fought match with plenty to be positive about for both teams.

The first quarter started well for Shoreham, captain Alex Stepney-Warburton displayed excellent technique to fire home two early goals. And that’s how the first quarter stayed for a lengthy period, with the debutants Littlehampton finding it hard to score past goalkeeper Frey Warman-Fox.

As the first quarter neared its end, Littlehampton co-captain Hope Waite-Jones pulled two back for the visitors. The first goal was arguably helped by a catastrophic roll in substitution attempt from Coach White. This left Waite-Jones unmarked in front of goal which led not only to a goal for Littlehampton but a booking from Referee Hardinge for ‘red-faced’ White. Quarter one ended 2-2.

The second quarter was also tight. Littlehampton were starting to gain a foothold in the game and moving the ball well. In one of the best moves of the game, Cooke fired an accurate pass into Hope Waite-Jones who caught and shot first time, bringing a great save from Shoreham goalkeeper Warman-Fox and rapturous applause from the crowd.

Shoreham again took the initiative and Jamie Miles continued his goal scoring run by finishing high into the top right corner from close range. Littlehampton’s Cooke pulled one back again as the second quarter ended in stalemate 3-3.

Quarter three was all Littlehampton and essentially won them the game. The fitness of the Littlehampton team was impressive and playing off only 8 players the whole team worked hard to gain the advantage, with some great movement from the younger players Keevil, Tester and Taylor. It was Cooke and Hope Waite-Jones that did the damage, scoring a number of goals to pull Littlehampton into an 8-3 lead. The best team goal involved several Littlehampton players. Shoreham won the ball back with goalkeeper Warman-Fox. And Littlehampton’s Toby Taylor raced the full length of the pitch to quell the Shoreham counter attack, eventually on his own two meters. The ball found its way to Florence Waite- Jones who found Tester, Tester immediately passed to Beyer, who was overlapping to his left. Under heavy pressure, Beyer found Hope Waite-Jones in the middle to finish off a slick Littlehampton move. The third quarter shut down was aided by a fantastic quadruple save from Tom Crane the Littlehampton goalkeeper (don’t ask me where the defenders were).

Shoreham went into the final quarter needing nothing short of a miracle to get back into the game and it was impressive to see they never gave up and actually won the final quarter 2-1. Sparks and Robertson down the right and left wings worked tirelessly to bring their team forward, with some superb swimming and Captain Stepney-Warburton pulled two goals back for the hosts. Lorn Cawdery made a number of saves to keep Littlehampton within reach, but Toby Taylor finished off any hope of a comeback, making it 9-5, which is how it would end.

A special mention to Florence Waite-Jones and Will Muzio for their fantastic swimming and defending, they won the ball back for their team on many occasions and injected a lot of pace into the game with some powerful swims. Waite-Jones also proved hard to beat in a final quarter cameo as goalkeeper.

A final special mention finally to Aiden McArragher and Harvey Tester both only 8 years old, they did very well playing many years above their age group.

Scorers

Litthampton Tigersharks (9)

I.Cooke (4), H. Waite-Jones (4), T. Taylor

Shoreham Stingrays (5)

A. Stepney Warburton (4), J. Miles

The next game is the ‘local derby’ Bognor Barracudas vs. Littlehampton Tigersharks on March 24th (yes the date has changed, more on that soon, sorry!)