ENL North week 5 Round-up

BLACKBURN, UK – Billingham Stars’ perfect start to the season continued as impressive wins over Sheffield Spartans and Telford Titans took them to the top of ENL1 North. They travelled to Sheffield on Saturday having won their first three games, but the Spartans raced into a 3-1 first period lead which could have been more but for the heroics of netminder James Flavell. Stars recovered to level at 4-4 at the end of the second and hit four unanswered goals in the third to run out 8-4 winners. Cal Davies and Anthony Price led the scoring with two goals each.

Sunday’s clash with Telford proved to be much more one sided as the North-East outfit ran out easy 8-1 winners – James Moss and Simon Hehir each bagged a brace. Trafford Metros are level on points with Billingham following a comfortable 5-0 success over Blackburn Hawks while Telford are just a point behind with Adam Taylor (3), Karol Jets and Paul Rigby grabbing the goals in a 5-3 win over Solihull Barons. Two goals from Rikki Bryniarski and a Tom Ledgard powerplay goal helped Coventry Blaze to a 3-1 road success over struggling Nottingham Lions. The comeback of the weekend belonged to Sheffield though, who recovered from 4-0 down after 10 minutes in Solihull to win 7-4. Andy Turner hit a hat-trick for the Spartans with Ollie Barron (2), Shaun Wild and Elliott Knell completing the scoring. Solway Sharks remain unbeaten in ENL2 North. They smashed 16 without reply against Fylde Flyers – Lewis Gold and Mark Gallagher each scored four with Ross Murray notching three. Sharks maintained their unbeaten record with a hard fought 8-5 success over Sutton Sting. Shaun Ashton and Richie Oliver gave Sting an early lead before Aiden Fulton, Nathan Salem and Lewis Gold put the Sharks in front. Ashton scored his second to level before Emerys Sharples edged the home team back in front. Bob Chalmers equalised for Solway but Ben Lowe restored Sting’s advantage at the second break. Sharks took control in the final period with Fulton (2), Gold and Adam Reynolds securing the points. Hull Stingrays beat Lancashire Raptors 11-0 while Bradford Bulldogs gained their first win of the season with a 4-1 success over Sheffield Senators. Blackburn Hawks got their Northern Cup campaign underway with an away tie against Whitley Warriors. The Hawks have had a torrid time at Hillheads in recent years but goals from Matthew Viney (2) and Jordan Bannon  saw them race into a 3-0 lead at the end of the second period. Whitley piled on the pressure in the third with goals from Callum Watson and Martin Crammond ensuring a nervy finish, but the Hawks held firm with netminder Danny Brittle in inspired form. Contact the author Comment@Prohockeynews.com