Juniors win first tournament of the season

Leighton Buzzard U10s claimed gold in the first county tournament of the season, beating Cambridge on penalties.
Leighton U10sLeighton U10s
Leighton U10s

Leighton U10 A sides first tournament of the new season had an unsettled start Playing on a bigger pitch and with keepers. Taking on a strong defensive St Neots team first and having three shots saved on the line, Anna Drohan managed to slot the ball home to take the first win .

Next up was was Shefford and Sandy this was a much better passing game goalkeeper David Galloway getting his first touch of the tournament, Max Meader And Zachary Fitzboydon passed well together and bossing the left hand side resulted in Max showing his strength down the line sweeping the ball across the D to a perfectly positioned Jacob Ford to take the lead and win for Leighton 1-0.

Going from strength to strength in the third pool game, LB took Bedford apart. Dynamic duo Dylan Morrison and Anna teamed up against the Bedford defence running them in circles resulting in Zachary and Anna blasting the backboard and putting us in good position for the semis .

The final pool game was going to be the toughest yet against Cambridge, great end to end hockey was played, Sam Smith and Max Lacey kept the team level with David again making some fantastic saves, final result was 0–0.

After a long wait Leighton had made the semifinals as the highest runner up. The semi-final game was a replay against Cambridge B team so they knew it would be tough, but a draw at the final whistle meant it went to penalty shuttles. Never practising this at training Dylan, Jacob and Anna all put the ball past the Cambridge keeper but player of the tournament GK David saved the last shuttle to send Leighton into the final.

Taking on another Cambridge team in the final, the game ended in another stale mate game, forcing another round of shuttles. Dylan and Anna both narrowly missing the goal this time but as did the Cambridge side too, Jacob Ford comfortably slotted home the last shuttle, Cambridge mirrored this 1-1 it was so sudden death shuttles ahead. Max Meader eager to take the next one slotted it home hard and comfortably, a confident keeper David, guided by his coach Jim did a tremendous job, running out closing down the Cambridge player making him panic and run it off the back line for a LB win, adding another gold medal for the trophy cabinet.