14s v North Ayr
The U14s season started with a feisty and physical contest against North Ayr after a long summer break.
Despite being out-numbered and out-sized by the opposition Solway scored first, Harris Henderson slotting home a Liam Stenton pass to the delight of the home crowd. North Ayr quickly equalized, and the 1 – 1 scoreline remained till the end of the period.
Solway started the second on the offensive, with runs on goal from amongst others Donald McCuaig, Scott Rae and Joe Little. The spirited physical play continued throughout the whole of the second period, and despite brave defending by Jack Little, Mekhi Caven and Jack Slater North Ayr consolidated their lead with another 2 goals, finishing the second with 3 goals to Solway’s 1.
By the third period tensions were running high, with lots of niggling amongst players on both sides. New players Lennon McNee and Matthew Watters started to make their presence felt, along with Lewis Gibson and Scott Kirkpatrick, before Captain Liam Stenton scored with a solo effort to bring Solway back with a goal of North Ayr. This lasted only a minute before the visitors again stretched the lead to 2, and when Stenton was sent off shortly afterwards the new young team had to dig deep and find new reserves of strength. Their determined effort and exertion, and some great saves from Joshua Leuvennink in goal, meant that North Ayr only managed to score another one, and the match finished North Ayr 5 Solway 2.
After the match coach Martyn Mitchell said, “It was a hard physical game for a season opener, especially with only 5 players having played contact ice hockey before. I was proud of the composure and maturity showed by all the players, and on a different day the game could have gone our way. The call on Liam was arguably harsh, unsettled the rest of the team and made the end of the game difficult for us. I have identified areas for improvement and we will be working on these before we play Aberdeen next week.”
Joshua Leuvennink, who put in a sterling effort in the Solway goal, was deservedly man of the match.
16s v N Ayr
The Junior Sharks U16s team got their season off to an energetic start with a resounding 11 – 3 win against North Ayr at the Ice Bowl. Their first foray into the new season saw them go a goal down within the first 2 minutes, but Aidan Nicol from Captain Kieran Hair evened the score, and a Lewis Chalmers goal from Lewis Houston and Scott McCutcheon saw the Sharks ahead at the end of the first period by 2 goals to 1.
North Ayr struck again shortly after the restart to even the scoreline, and despite still finding their feet in their first game the Solway team soon gained a bit of momentum, and a Chalmers solo effort to take the back the lead was swiftly followed by another, by Houston from Nicol and Liam Stenton. The second period finished with the Sharks 4 goals to 2 ahead.
An inspiring team talk in the break by coach Jamie Kerr saw the players start the final period playing smarter hockey, and Houston slotted home another with a solo effort after a couple of minutes, only for North Ayr to pull another back to make the score 5 – 3 to Solway.
The Sharks had by now sorted out their earlier issues and started playing to their full potential, with goals coming in quick
succession. Kieran Hair was next, from Chalmers and Kain Briggs, very shortly followed by Ruairi Lockerbie from Houston and Scott Rae. Stenton from Chalmers made it 8 – 3 only 6 minutes into the period, the youngsters getting into their stride. Rebekah Scott, who had stood firm in her goal, made way for young Joshua Leuvennink for the final 5 minutes. As Houston scored another solo effort, followed by Chalmers with 2 unassisted goals within a minute, Josh followed Rebekah’s great example to deny North Ayr any further scoring, and the Sharks finished convincing 11 – 3 victors.
After the match coach Jamie Kerr commented, “The most satisfying aspect of the game was the actual score. As a team, I felt we were very disjointed for the first two periods, we strayed from basic, simple effective plays that could have seen us more comfortable a lot earlier. We got sucked into a bit of a mediocrity fight with defence and forwards playing their own games at times. During the last period the talent linked up better from the back to front areas and so scoring 7 goals in the last period proved the aforementioned negatives. That said, it was most guys first game of the season having not played since April, so we have a positive platform to build on with practical examples of how bad and how good we can be to reflect on.”
