The Armagh Stars inline hockey season got underway in Dungannon leisure centre this past Sunday, when they hosted the opening day of the BEA cup. In the first game of the day the Stars faced the Enniskillen Eagles in what was a tough opening game of the season. Enniskillen took the lead with two quick unanswered strikes after 12 minutes.

The Eagles were dominating the play and their big defensive unit was suffocating the Armagh forwards who were struggling to create opportunities. With a couple of minutes left in the period the Stars got their opening goal of the season, Neil Black getting the honours. No more scores came before half time, with the Armagh team grateful for the heroics of Jody Williamson in goal, who made some huge saves.

The Stars regrouped at half time and started the second half brighter. However, Enniskillen managed to grab two goals in five minutes to pull further away from the Stars. The Stars continued to work hard to get back into the game and were rewarded when the Eagles took 2 penalties to give the Stars a 4 minute powerplay. Neil Black and Simon Laverty capitalised for the Stars with a goal each to bring the score within 1 goal. However, success was not to be for the Stars, when Enniskillen scored a late goal to wrap the game up at 5:3.

Game two of the season took place an hour later with the Stars facing off against the Ballymoney Badgers. This was the game of the day, with both teams very well matched. The Stars started slowly and fell two goals behind minutes into the game. In need of some energy, the Stars altered their line-ups and this had an immediate effect. Simon Laverty getting 4 quick goals to give the stars the lead. Ballymoney battled back and managed to take the lead at halftime with the game standing at 6:4 to the Badgers.

A spirited team talk seemed to invigorate the Stars at half time, and they came out all guns blazing with Neil Black scoring early to draw the teams closer. However, the Stars took another knock when the Badgers scored 2 goals in 2 shots to pull the score to 8:5. Stephen Lynch brought the Stars back into the game with a hat trick inside 5 minutes. The Stars now led for the second time in the game. Tempers began to boil on court with some feisty plays involving both teams, which added to the excitement of the many spectators in attendance.

The Stars kept their heads and thanks to goals from Mark Mc Morris, Neil Black and Simon Laverty, the Stars settled the game with a final score of 12:9. Simon Laverty scored an incredible game high of 7 goals.

So a win and a loss in the opening 2 games of the BEA Cup sees the Armagh Stars sitting in second position in the standings, two points behind leaders Enniskillen Eagles. Round 2 of the BEA Cup action is due next month in Ballymoney, with a number of weeks’ practise between now and then the Stars will be looking to continue to improve, and achieve further success in Ballymoney.