Warriors 3 didn’t fear the Reapers
On Saturday 11th January 2025 our development team welcomed Kingston Reapers to Leeds for a challenge game.
This was our development team’s 4th challenge game of the 2024-25 season and their first ever game against the Kingston Reapers.
In team news, quite a few Warriors players were unavailable for the game - Lisa Speed, Richard Knight, Matt Dudley, Simon Bainbridge, Lee Worsnup, Ivans Lebedjoks, Connor Brocklebank, Sam Stokes, Paul Eaglestone, Dimitri Shalashilin, Andis Jansons, Sam Walker and Matty Meadows.
But despite that, the team easily had enough available players to ice three lines.
Dressed players:
Rory Butcher (NM), Kieran High (NM) Dean Cadman, Brendan Hullah, Ash Farmer, Craig Baker, Freddy Monk, Gary Clough, Ash Davies, Heather McCarten, Phil Bradley, Jared Weldon, Jonjo Marshall, Charlie Tang, Josh Moss, Simon Davis, Stella Giwisser, Zach Huntley and Tomasz Molenda.
1st period
The Warriors started the game strongly with a goal in the first two minutes as Charlie Tang scored an unassisted goal. The Warriors soon extended their lead to 3-0 with two more goals in the next five minutes. In the 4th minute Ash Davies scored from a Heather McCarten assist and on 7 minutes, Brendan Hullah scored from a Jared Weldon assist.
But the Reapers kept on fighting to stay in the game and they got their goal in the 9th minute to reduce the deficit to 3-1. But this was only temporary as Tang scored his second goal of the night to make it 4-1 Warriors after 12 minutes.
It looked like the period would end with the score at 4-1, but the Reapers managed to claw another goal back in the 17th minute to reduce the deficit to two and make the contest a lot closer.
Warriors 4 Reapers 2
2nd period
With the score at 4-2, the next goal was crucial. The Warriors needed to create some extra daylight between the teams and avoid any momentum swinging back to the Reapers.
With only four minutes of the period elapsing, Dean Cadman scored the Warriors 5th goal, unassisted. 5-2 Warriors!
The game was fiercely contested and on 27 minutes, there was a goal-mouth scramble which escalated because the Reapers netminder came out swinging, throwing punches with his blocker.
This resulted in him and another Reapers player being ejected from the game and the Reapers then had to replace their goalie with a skater. The Warriors also picked up some roughing penalties for their part in the kerfuffle.
But despite the visitors now having a less experienced player between the pipes, it was they who scored the next goal. On 29 minutes the Reapers scored their third of the night to make it 5-3.
At around the half-way point in the game, the Warriors switched goalies from Rory Butcher to Kieran High.
There were two more goals scored in the second period and both were from the Warriors. Jonjo Marshall scored the teams sixth goal on 31 minutes - with the assist coming from Weldon.
Davies then scored his second and the Warriors seventh of the night with an unassisted goal on 37 minutes.
Warriors 7 Reapers 3
3rd period
The Warriors went into the final period with a healthy lead and against a team without a recognised netminder. The victory looked assured but they still had to bring it home.
Within six minutes of the restart, Weldon scored from a Craig Baker assist, which took Weldon to 1+2 for the night. But within a matter of seconds from the puck drop, the Reapers bounced back with their fourth goal of the night. 8-4 Warriors.
Despite that set-back, the Warriors were unfazed and kept pushing for more goals. They picked up two more goals in the 50th and 56th minutes to bring the score to 10-4 Warriors. Tang scored the ninth goal, which also game him a hat-trick - assisted by Tomasz Molenda, and Freddy Monk scored number ten from a Phil Pearce assist.
Whilst the outcome of the game was now certain, the Reapers still hadn’t given up playing for pride and they scored their fifth goal of the night on 58 minutes to make it 10-5.
But there was still time for one more goal and it was another hat-trick goal. With only seconds remaining on the clock, Ash Davies bagged his third of the night - with the assist coming from Phil Pearce.
Final score :
Warriors 11 Reapers 5
Points scorers:
Ash Davies 3+0
Charlie Tang 3+0
Jared Weldon 1+2
Phil Pearce 0+2
Dean Cadman 1+0
Brendan Hullah 1+0
Jonjo Marshall 1+0
Freddy Monk 1+0
Craig Baker 0+1
Tomasz Molenda 0+1
Heather McCarten 0+1
Great effort from our development team who came away with a big win. This will be great for the team’s confidence. Shout-out to the Reapers for a great game and for never giving up!
Jared Weldon
Player of the game
Phil Pearce
Captain’s player of the game
Player of the Game, as selected by the Reapers, went to Jared Weldon - and the Captain’s Helmet went to Phil Pearce. Well played guys.
If you would like to watch the goal highlights from the game, Phil Pearce has put this video together. Thanks Phil!
The next game for our development team is the return game against the Reapers. See the details below:
Challenge game:
Saturday 25th January 2025
Kingston Reapers v Warriors
@ Hull Ice Arena
Face-off : 21:45
All Warriors 3 fixtures can be found here : Fixtures and Results
