Junior Review: Bulldogs Under-18s battle their way to stirring road win in Telford

ON TARGET (from left): Daragh Spawforth, Ollie Massey, Jess Wooding, Danny Harrison and Lydia Lutwyche all got among the goals in the Under-18s’ 9-6 win at Telford at the weekend.

BRADFORD BULLDOGS’s Under-18s pulled off a fantastic road win when they came from behind to beat hosts Telford Tigers 9-6.

Hat-tricks from captain Daragh Spawforth and Danny Harrison led the way, with Jess Wooding, Oliver Massey and Lydia Lutwyche also getting on the scoresheet.

But while the long drive home was eventually a happy one, it looked like being far from that when the visitors found themselves trailing 4-2 early in the second period.

They had actually got off to a promising start when Lutwyche was on hand to poke the puck home from close range to give the Bulldogs the lead with just 3.08 on the clock.

But the hosts were level inside a minute through Ryan Leese, who was on hand again to put his side ahead at 11.55, although that was a lead which lasted less than three minutes when Spawforth fired home his first of the night.

Telford went in ahead at the first intermission through Kyle Watt’s strike at 17.28 and doubled their advantage in the 24th minute through Laetta Liu. 

Just after the halfway mark, however, the momentum shifted in the favour of the visitors, who were given a chance to win thanks to an impressive peroformance in goal throughout the 60 minutes by Jack Mickevicius. 

Jess Wooding’s speculative effort got the ball rolling when it found its way through traffic at 31.22 to make it a one-goal game again. 

Ollie Massey then fired a rasper past Hal Griffiths and into the roof of the net to pull his team level just over six minutes later, before Harrison scored a fine individual effort which saw him weave his way past four opponents before slotting home to put the Bulldogs ahead with just 77 seconds of the period remaining.

It was Harrison’s effort through traffic which doubled the Bulldogs’ lead to make it 6-4 at 46.51, although their path to victory was made more difficult when Telford hit back through Leese’s hat-trick marker at 53.11.

Less than a minute later, Spawforth doubled his tally with a pinpoint shot into Griffiths’ top left-hand corner, only for Telford to make it a one-goal game yet again, this time Taylor Stanton finding a way past Jack Mickevicius at 56.54.

But the Bulldogs themselves found a quick response, Spawforth sealing his hat-trick at 58.46 to give his team a welcome two-goal cushion. 

As Telford pulled Griffiths for the extra skater in a desperate attempt to find a way back, the puck fell to Harrison who swiftly smashed it into the empty-net from the halfway mark.