U15 Northern School Champions

Culture & Events

Moreton Hall hosted the prestigious U13 and U15 North Schools’ Lacrosse tournament welcoming schools from across Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire and even Scotland.

U13’s Match Report

The U13’s tournament was a round robin format, this meant that everyone played one another. The Moreton team started brightly securing an excellent win over Packwood.

The next two matches were more challenging as both Bolton and Withington had some very strong, athletic players. Moreton, however, showed grit and determination, battling hard until the final whistle. Despite the losses, the team demonstrated some positive aspects in both attack and defence.

After a regroup and positive team talk, the Moreton U13s finished with an impressive win against Harrogate. It was a good way to finish what was a long, yet positive day, where the team learnt a great deal.

U15’s Match Report

Moreton entered both an A and a B team into the U15 competition, with high hopes for a competitive and talented A team, and the prospect of a big development opportunity for our keen and enthusiastic B team. This also allowed us to have a large number of Upper Five and Upper Four Lacrosse pupils who all got the chance to compete.

The U15s had a record ten teams entered into the tournament and the standard was the highest it has been for a number of years. Moreton knew they had a tough test ahead, but they were ready.

Facing Withington first, the U15A had a shaky start, but managed to come away with the win 4-3. Mrs Walsh encouraged the girls, reminding them that with improvement, the sky’s the limit. The team did just that, they improved with every game and finished their group stages unbeaten and unchallenged by four competitive teams; Withington, Birkenhead, Queen Margaret’s and Fettes College.

Topping the group resulted in a quarter final against Harrogate Ladies’ College. The team continued to grow and cruised through to the semis with a convincing victory, but it was tougher from here on in. The semi-final was against Preistnall, a team made up of exclusively club players, who also represented their county. This is the team that knocked us off the spot last year and were crowned U14 Champions, this meant that Moreton were ready to redeem themselves. With the most mature and intelligent display of Lacrosse this squad has ever given, they took the lead and continued to remain composed, smartly seeing out the game. It was feisty and competitive, but they remained disciplined and composed and it was clear that this team wanted the trophy! A 5-2 victory and a spot in the final.

A big upset in the other semi-final saw Birkenhead knock out Bolton, giving them a lot of confidence coming into the final. Birkenhead are always competitive and don’t give up without a fight, so even though Moreton won the group match they could not be complacent. Moreton scored first but Birkenhead fought back. It was end-to-end for the first half but Moreton stayed ahead and in control.

Moreton displayed a solid defence, with some great saves from Pip. The relentless work and commitment in the midfield saw Moreton just getting better and better with some brilliant skills and composure in attack. When the final whistle came, Moreton won with a 5-2 victory. This meant that Moreton had been unbeaten all day and were now U15 Northern School Champions, an elusive title we couldn’t get our hands on for quite a few years.

Head of Lacrosse and the U15 Coach, Mrs Walsh said: “I am incredibly proud of this team, and I have never seen them play as well as they did today. They have always been talented, but what impressed me the most was their maturity, discipline and composure. They played smart, followed instruction, implemented tactics and put on an U15s Lacrosse masterclass!”

The U15B team also did exceptionally well and had a great day, learning a lot, working exceptionally hard and competing with nearly every team they faced. There was no B team competition this year, so the Moreton B were the only B team entered into an A team competition. This meant that it was very competitive and no mean feat. The B team had a couple of tough games against a very strong A team, but they did not waiver and battled to the end of every match.

They had a fantastic win against Harrogate Ladies’ College and another fantastic game against Loretto. Their final game was against the Scottish team, Fettes College, and it was an end to end battle with both teams competing well. In the end, Fettes came out on top by one goal but that didn’t take away from the commitment and work of all the players.

Mrs Walsh added: “We are incredibly proud of the players representing the U15B team today. It is not easy to enter into an A team tournament, but we knew it would be a fantastic development opportunity for this enthusiastic group of players. They worked extremely hard, had some outstanding performances and showed us how much depth there is in our U15/14s Lacrosse squad.”

Director of Sport, Stuart Penrose, said: “The standard from all teams was unbelievable and Lacrosse in the North has a bright future ahead. A huge well done to Moreton U13s and U15Bs who produced some outstanding performances and thoroughly deserved victories.”