Year 8 Football team defeat League Champions in Cup 1st Round!
The Sirius Academy Year 8 Football finally got the better of their close rivals St Marys Sports College in the 1st Round of the Hull Schools Cup. Fresh from their expolits in reaching the Humberside Schools Cup Final, the boys showed great spirit to twice come from behind to beat a very strong Marys team. The boys now look forward to the Hull Schools Cup Quarter-Final, as well as the forthcoming Humberside Final, which will again see the opponents as St Marys.
The game started with Sirius on the back foot, with the front man of Marys causing trouble with his size. A communication error in defence left the forward free to poke St Marys ahead, and within the next 20 seconds, disaster struck when a strong back pass took an awful bounce and went over the unlucky Kieran Bartlett to leave Sirius 2-0 down. However back battled Sirius with Luke Salas probing with testing through balls, and the excellent Joseph Wood continually pressing forward. With 5 minutes of the half remaining Sirius grabbed a lifeline, when a Salas pass was collected by Oliver Russell, who strode through and chipped the keeper to pull Sirius back to 2-1.
The 2nd half began with all Sirius pressure. The defence of Callum Magee, Robbie Hird, Jordan Littlefair, Luke Collingwood and Jordan Wardell, showed great maturity to deal with the threat of the big front-man, before changing to deal with a new striker with excellent pace. With Kenan Stephenson taking on the defence, Sirius were awarded a free-kick, which Salas struck, and Russell was on hand to put home the rebound for 2-2. Sirius continued to push, and a Will Murphy shot was followed in by Stephenson who put Sirius 3-2 up and in control. Back came Marys who were buoyed by an injury to Hird, and quickly grabbed 2 goals to leave Sirius 4-3 down with 6 minutes left. With Chris Brown up-front Sirius pressured the back four, and after an excellent save from Bartlett, the ball was worked up field and pressure from Brown resulted in an own goal, and Sirius were level at 4-4.
The extra-time proved to be tough, with Marys pushing forward and Bartlett being kept busy in the goal. With the 1st half level, all was set for another set of penalties after the teams victory in penalties over Toll Bar Academy, however up stepped captain Salas, who controlled the ball and curled home into the top corner from 25 yards, to send Sirius 5-4 up, and give them their 1st victory over Marys in 4 attempts.
Special thanks to Danny Rouse for travelling with the team and assisting with coaching and support, and also to Simon Jewitt for giving up time to take the boys for a training session this week.
Please congratulate the boys on their success, attitude and behaviour:
Kieran Bartlett, Jordan Wardell, Robbie Hird, Callum Magee, Jordan Littlefair, Kenan Stephenson, Chris Brown, Luke Salas, Will Murphy, Joseph Wood, Oliver Russell, Luke Collingwood.