Wildcats avoid late charge by the Knights in a 40-30 victory at the Castle

Written by: Robert Balachandran

The much anticipated game between the New York Knights and the Connecticut Wildcats lived up to its hype in the last game of the regular season in the Big Apple. As usual the two arch rivals put on a fast and hard hitting display, with the Wildcats holding out a strong finishing Knights 40-30. The crowd were treated to heated forward clashes and sweeping back line movements from both sides.

Danny Bull put the Wildcats in the lead in the opening minutes with a trademark run from the scrum and with a fired up Christian Rahui and Will Brazier it looked like it would a long day for the Knights. The first half was an unhappy one for New York as they could not get their defense together and with captain Andrew Webster leading the way the Knights were down 12-0 before they got moving.

The two teams then traded tries for the first half with Connecticut leading 30-18 after Dan Driscoll went in just before the break. Through the hard hitting of Joe Hughes and Rocco Forgione the knights defense stiffened up and their attack then followed. Matt Miller orchestrated the New York plays wonderfully and put center Liam Cassidy over the line before being rewarded one for himself. Chris Noonan had a great day with the boot with a 100% success rate after Igor made his job easier by scoring close to the posts.

Best for the Wildcats were Danny Bull, Christian Rahui and Andrew Webster with Joe Hughes and Matt Miller being the best for the improving Knights squad.

Connecticut proved themselves worthy of being title favorites, however Knights CEO Rob Balachandran was enthusiastic about his teams improvement. "When we are healthy and get all of our players on the field we are capable of mixing it up with the best of them, our boys know they have to up the ante in a few areas. I'm looking forward to seeing our boys play up to their full potential the remaining games of the season."

"The Knights as always were tough!" said Wildcats boss Rich Portalie. "We got pretty beat up, but I'm happy we got the points for the win !"

Both teams head down to New Jersey for the annual "War on the Shore" matches at Sea Isle NJ.

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