Uni win in York-over

Women's Lacrosse Leeds Uni 2nds 21 - 1 York 2nds

By Chris Stevenson

In a hugely one-sided encounter, a weak York side were crushed by a free-scoring Leeds side that are cantering towards the Northern Conference 2A title.

Having scored a massive 85 times in their previous four games, they continued their good form to dominate the game and keep York under constant pressure.

An explosive start clearly rattled the technically inferior opposition as Leeds racked up an 8-0 lead by the end of the first quarter. Liv Matthias and Charlotte Greene were at the centre of much of the play, with Greene finishing two good passing moves in the opening 10 minutes with some smart running to create space.  Sue Edwardes also scored after some impressive build-play from Lucy Preston and Matthias.

York could not get over the halfway line for much of the quarter with poor passing and pick-ups letting them down. On the odd occasion when York did threaten, the Leeds defence were quick to close them down and force mistakes.

In the second quarter the domination continued with Leeds setting up camp in the York half.  Ant Dobson worked space to score after a sustained period of pressure involving  goals from Edwards and Laura Chapman.

Matthias herself a goal after a smart turn away from her marker, and got another near the end of the quarter.

While the score line was impressive Leeds’ play began to get sloppier with passes starting to go astray and chances being missed, it didn’t help that York were allowing the home team the time and space to make these errors with little hope of being punished for their complacency.

After a stern talking to at the break about not rushing to the net so often and trying to slow the pace of their play around the net, Leeds again made a strong start in the third quarter with goals from Lucy Chapman and Greene.

While the whole attacking unit began to play with more fluidity, especially when coming from behind the net.

The match was starting to look more like a practice game for the home side, but a York goal lifted the spirits of the visitors and they began to exert some pressure of their own.

Nonetheless the away team could not stop conceding with good finishes from Danni Barber and Rosie Afia, the latter resulting from a great pass by Katy Franklin.

By the end of the third, the score was 14-1 and York were starting to look very tired. Leeds capitalised on this to crash in a further seven goals in the final period, to put a hefty gloss on the final score, with Chapman, Barber, Edwardes and Mathias all netting.

Having now scored 106 goals and only conceded 10 in five games, it seems that promotion is only a matter of when and not if.