The Connah’s Quay Cobras won their second game out of two so far in the Summer Classic Cup and picked up a huge scalp with a 4-8 victory away to Blackburn Falcons.
The Falcons are widely regarded as the top recreation team in the north west and, since their formation back in 1991 when they were originally set up as Blackburn’s official second team, have featured numerous future and former league players. Saturday’s game was no exception and the Falcons’ roster boasted an impressive number of former Raptors, Eagles and Hawks 2 NIHL players.
The Cobras, in contrast, have only been in existence for just over a year but have also assembled an impressive squad with a mixture of young local talent and their own band of ex-league stars.
The game started well for the Cobras and they opened the scoring in the third minute with a goal from Mike Filek. The Falcons hit back to equalise just 16 seconds later but a strike from player coach Emma Dutton just 8 seconds after that put Connah’s Quay back in the lead and the score remained 1-2 at the first period break.
Blackburn equalised again two minutes into the second period and then went ahead with a third goal at the midway point of the game. The Cobras upped their efforts at this point, however, and were rewarded with three unanswered goals in a dazzling 5 minute spell – 2 from former Deeside Dragon Chris Keating and a second of the night from Dutton – to hand them a 3-5 lead at the second interval.
A sixth Connah’s Quay goal four minutes into the third period, scored by Louis Ellwood, looked to have put the Cobras well on their way to victory but Blackburn hit back once again to pull the margin back to 2 goals heading into the final 10 minutes of play.
The Cobras outshot the Falcons by over two to one in the last period and the pressure paid off as, with five minutes to go, former Slough Jet Stewart Cutting edged them further ahead and then Keating rounded off his hat trick with two minutes left on the clock.
The resulting 4-8 victory means that Cobras have now won 9 games in row in all and sit proudly top of the group in the Summer Classic Cup with a 100% record from their first two qualifying matches, having already beaten Flintshire Phantoms in their opening game.
The Connah’s Quay Cobras are next in action on Sunday 14th April when they take on the Blackburn Falcons in their next game in the Summer Classic Cup at Deeside Leisure Centre, 8.30pm face off. Admission is free for all spectators.
