Blues Beat Bucks

09/10/2010

Cambridge won 10-5

Cambridge Lacrosse continued its fine start to the season as they comfortably defeated club side Buckhurst Hill in their first competitive game of the year. The game began with high expectations from a strong Light Blue squad, with the first quarter showing some glimpses of the fantastic lacrosse that Cambridge can produce when on form. Cambridge’s first touch of the ball was placed in the prodigious hands of Carl Tilbury who scored the first of many with his first shot of the game. Things continued to run smoothly at the offensive end for the first quarter to find Cambridge steaming ahead with a 4-0 lead.

However, a lack of discipline in the second quarter almost led to catastrophe for the Cambridge team. After such a fantastic offensive quarter, the defence appeared to have fallen asleep to give Buckhurst several opportunities to claw their way back into the game. Buckhurst put 4 goals past a defence still recovering from a long summer break, with Cambridge only able to produce one more before half time. To lose such a convincing lead put the Light Blues firmly on the back foot and looking to start the second half as they started the first.

Fortunately, the last goal scored by Buckhurst was at the start of the third quarter and the rest of the game saw little opportunity for them to add to their tally. Cambridge continued to work their successful offense and produced some more fantastic team goals, winning the second half of the game 5-1. Carl Tilbury was the top scorer for Cambridge as he put 4 past the Buckhurst goalie, followed closely by Captain Duncan Barrigan who got 2 goals at the end of the game. The defence went someway in redeeming themselves as they shut out the Buckhurst attack; in particular Michael Lipton and Sohaib Chaudhry had solid games, showing the potential for a quality team defence in the coming season.

The game ended with Cambridge as the clear winners. Their performance was luke warm at times in the second quarter, but at others the team looked to be on fire and ready for a very successful year ahead.

By Sam Spurrell