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| Jake Witkowski was the Dragsns' MVP away at Billingham (Photo by SL Sports Photos) |
Saturday 20th December 2025 – NIHL Moralee Division: Billingham Stars 5 – Deeside D1 Dragons 3
The Deeside D1 Dragons rounded off their fixtures for 2025 with a narrow
5-3 defeat away to defending champions Billingham Stars on Saturday.
The Dragons had a number of regular players missing and travelled to the
North East with a short bench but the players who were there put in a spirited
performance and were unlucky not to take something from the game.
Billingham opened the scoring on 9 minutes and took a narrow 1-0 lead into
the first period break.
They scored twice early more in the second but Deeside visibly upped
their game and goals from Jake Witkowski on 31 minutes and Noah Percival - his
first in the Moralee Division for the senior Dragons – on 35 minutes narrowed
the deficit and left the score standing at an equally close 3-2 at the second
interval.
The Dragons outshot the Stars by 2 to 1 in the third period but
Billingham were next to score when they made it 4-2 on 52 minutes. Witkowski
pulled a goal back with his second of the night – a sensational short handed
goal – at 57.43 to leave the game tantalisingly close at 4-3 heading into the
closing minutes.
As the clock ticked down, Deeside withdrew their netminder in a favour
of an extra attacker in an attempt to try and force a late equaliser and send
the game into overtime. Unfortunately, this tactic failed to pay off as Billingham
scored an empty net goal with 44 seconds left to play to seal their 5-3 victory.
Aside from the plucky performance by an understrength team, another positive
note from this game was that 18 year old Ben Roscoe made his first appearance
for the senior D1 Dragons in the Moralee Division. 
Ben Roscoe in action for the D2 Dragons
(Photo by Lewis Cleveland)
A former Deeside junior, Roscoe made his NIHL debut last season with the
erstwhile Deeside Ducks team and has continued playing with the D2 Dragons team
this season in the Laidler Division.
He was joined by former senior Dragon and now D2 team mate Cameron
Kushnirenko, who was also drafted in to bolster the team for this tricky trip
up to the North East.
The weekend results across the Moralee Division have seen the Dragons drop
down from second place to fourth in the league table. Both Solihull Barons and Telford
Tigers picked up wins over the weekend and move ahead of the Dragons into second
and third respectively. Solihull now have
46 points from 21 games, Telford 45 from 21 and Deeside 44 from 21.
Blackburn Hawks remain top after their 3-7 win away over Hull Jets and finish
the calendar year with 60 points from 22 games.
The Dragons now have a couple of weeks’ break to recharge their
batteries and are back in action on Sunday 4th January when they
entertain Nottingham Lions at Deeside Leisure Centre.
