Junior Review: Testing weekend for Bulldogs youngsters

ON TARGET: Tom Mardell, Mackenzie Barker, Danny Harrison and Daragh Spawforth all found the back of the net for the Bulldogs over the weekend.

IT proved to be a tough weekend for Bradford Bulldogs’ junior teams - each giving encouraging performances but no wins to show for their efforts. 

Saturday brought defeats for the Under-12s and Under-16s, while 24 hours later, the Under-18s came off second-best against Yorkshire rivals Kingston Sharks, going down 10-2 on home ice.

It was a poor start that did for the Under-18s against a strong Kingston line-up, the hosts finding themselves 5-0 down inside the first period through goals from Lewis Rogers, Ethan Daintith (2) Owen Bruton and Dylan Barry.

Daintith sealed his hat-trick just 39 seconds into the second period to make it 6-0, but the next goal was to come at the other end, as the Bulldogs got on the board through Daragh Spawforth at 27.36.

Less than a minute had passed, however, before the Sharks were back on the board through Jack Hayward, Lucca Wild then making it 8-1 at 37.46 before Tom Mardell brought cheers from the home crowd when he struck a quick reply just 26 seconds later. 

With the game long gone, Hull further strengthened their hand early in the third, closing out for a dominant win with further strikes from Daintith and a second for Rogers.

The day before, the Under-16s had made the long trip to Shropshire hoping to exact some revenge on a Telford Tigers team who had won 10-4 at Bradford before Christmas.

But they found themselves 2-0 down inside 12 minutes through a Taylor Stanton double, the forward’s quality in front of net going on to prove something of a theme throughout the game.

But the deficit was halved early in the second period when Cian Sharrock won the puck in the Bulldogs’ zone before it fell to Danny Harrison, who managed to evade two Telford players before back-handing home over the right shoulder of Joshua Minns in the Telford goal.

That was how it stayed until early in the third period, Telford restoring their two-goal advantage through a power play strike from Ryan Leese at 33.45.

A giveaway in the Bulldogs’ zone allowed Stanton to complete his hat-trick at 34.56 only for the Bulldogs to respond quickly when Mackenzie Barker burst into the Telford zone and fired home low to Minns’ left. 

After a feisty melee behind the Telford net then resulted in two players from each side being tossed from the game, the Bulldogs found themselves with a great opportunity to eat further into Telford’s lead when they found themselves on a 5-on-3 power play. 

But it proved to be a missed opportunity after another giveaway saw the puck reach the stick of Stanton in the neutral zone, from where he was allowed to drive forward unchecked before beating Justin Scott-Davies with a short-handed strike to make it 5-2 at 38.56.

The Bulldogs had other chances on net, but nothing that got the better of Minns, with Stanton capping a fine evening’s work when he hit his fifth goal of the game past Scott-Davies to make it 6-2 with 20 seconds remaining.

Earlier in the day, Bulldogs Under-12s played host to the North Division leaders Widnes and - as expected - found it tough going.

But the youngsters never gave up battling throughout the game, even after going in at the first break 5-0 down through goals from Caleb Eddleston, Leighton Williams, Stanley Shearn, Jacob Foster and Oliver Kitchen.

Williams bagged a second to make it 6-0 at 22.08, with Daniel Bates increasing the lead for Widnes just over a minute later.

But it wasn’t until early in the third period that the mercy rule kicked in, a Foster power play strike sealing a comfortable 8-0 win for the visitors.

• This weekend, sees the Under-18s in action at Ice Sheffield against Sheffield IHA on Saturday (12.50pm face-off), while on Sunday the Under-14s make the short trip down the M62 to take on Leeds Junior Knights at Planet Ice Leeds (face-off 3.50pm).
  Our Under-12s head to Deeside on Saturday for a challenge game and skills session.