Sunday 5th January 2025 – Challenge Match: Connah’s Quay Cobras 14 – Riverside Raiders 15
The Connah’s Quay Cobras shook off any lingering new year cobwebs with a rigorous work out against the Riverside Raiders, only narrowly losing out 14-15 at Deeside Leisure Centre on Sunday.
Deeside v Widnes clashes are always passionate affairs – irrespective of the level that they are played at – and this game was no exception, with end to end action, plenty of goals but surprisingly few penalties handed out.
Both teams iced a number of new players, with the Cobras’ squad having been boosted by the signings of Sam Hunt from Flintshire Phantoms, George Kelly from the Chester Road Reapers and former Deeside Dragon Mike Jones.
The Raiders took the lead on 4 minutes with a goal from Kai Gennoe but Connah’s Quay equalised 80 seconds later with a strike from Martin Rybka.
The visitors edged back into the lead with a second goal from Gennoe, only for the Cobras to equalise again through Louie Bailey 21 seconds later. Connah’s Quay briefly took the lead in the 10th minute through Sam Plant, only for Preston Gennoe (former Widnes Wild women’s team player, and Kai’s elder sister) to draw the Raiders level once more.
Further Cobras goals – from Arthur Podracki and Bailey again – and a single Raiders strike from Kai Gennoe for a first period hat trick – saw the home side go into the first break with a narrow 5-4 lead.
And so it continued all the way through the game with lots of goals for both teams and the lead changing hands several times - but with neither side being able to build up a clear advantage.
Connah’s Quay had slightly more of the play overall and fired in an eye watering 96 shots on Raiders netminder James Allet over the course of the game – 82 of which he kept out - while Andy Teece faced a “mere” 49 shots in the Cobras goal.
The Cobras scored three goals in the second period – from Mike Filek, Rybka and Sam Kennedy – but five goals for the Raiders – from Josh Hartwon, Kai Gennoe, Preston Gennoe and Alex Mason - saw the visitors leading 8-9 at the second interval.
The third period was even closer with yet more goal mouth action and 6 goals for each team – from Mike Jones on his debut, Filek, Rybka, Plant and Ken Valyear for the Cobras and Mike Durbin, Hartwon (2), Ben Donkin, Kai Gennoe and Preston Gennoe for the Raiders.
The score was actually level at 12-12 with 4 minutes left to play and a dramatic finale then ensued. Three straight goals for the Raiders put some daylight between the two teams for the first time but the Cobras fiercely fought back. A goal with just 65 seconds left on the clock narrowed the deficit to two and then a strike with 1 second left to go brought the final score to a “so near, yet so far”, quite incredible 14-15.
The Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards went to Alex Mason for the Riverside Raiders and George Kelly for the Connah’s Quay Cobras.
