Young rivals make most of opportunities

THE Wild Academy Under 16 team lost 9-1 away to Leeds U16s on Saturday.

It wasn’t a particularly one-sided game as the “shots on goal” count was 33 to Leeds and 24 to Widnes but the home side were able to make more of their chances over the course of the match.

Widnes actually scored first – with a goal from Luke Alston in the 10th minute and the score remained 0-1 to the Wild at the first period break.

Leeds overturned the deficit straight from the restart with two goals within 10 seconds of each other and went on to lead 4-1 by the end of the second period.

The superior numbers on the home bench pressed home their advantage in the final period as the Wild players began to tire and five more unanswered goals produced a final score that wasn’t necessarily a true reflection of the game overall.

The Under 14s suffered a heavy 12-0 defeat away to the Leeds U14s on Saturday, in what was the first ever league game for the Yorkshire side.

The Wild team featured several younger players who were “playing up” at a level higher then their usual age group and were up against it right from the start. Leeds scored after just 70 seconds of the game and went 2-0 up 27 seconds later.

The score was 7-0 to the hosts at the end of the first period and they reached the 12-0 cut off point in the 23rd minute of the game.

Under junior league rules to avoid onesided scorelines, once a team gets 12 goals ahead in a match, no further scoring is recorded and the remaining game time is played out for fun.

Finn Ogden in the Wild net turned away 53 of the 65 shots that he faced.

The Under 18s lost 14-4 to Sutton U18s in their opening game of the season away at iceSheffield on Sunday.

The Widnes Wild women’s team play their first game of the new season this

Sunday 10th October when they make the long journey down to Essex to face the Chelmsford Cobras in the Women’s Premier League - 12.15 (noon) face off.

The Wild women have four away games in a row – at Chelmsford, Slough, Sheffield and Nottingham before they play their first home of the new campaign on Sunday 21st November when they take on the Nottingham Vipers at Planet Ice Widnes.