Northstars victorious in first preseason game.
The Newcastle Northstars 8 defeated the Central Coast Rhinos 6 in their preseason home game on Saturday evening.
Patrick Nadin opened the scoring in period one, with two goals from Wehebe Darge to give them home team a 3-0 lead. The Rhinos scored two to go to the first intermission 3-2.
Captain Liam Manwarring opened second-period scoring for a two-goal lead. Suffering some penalties, the Northstars fell behind after 3 Rhinos goals. With less than a minute left in the period, Tim Stanger equalised the game going into the break.
The Rhinos retook the lead at the start of the second period, but three unanswered Northstars goals would secure the win for the Northstars, including the hattrick goal for Darge and goals for West and Nadin.
Captain Liam Manwarring shared, “This year we’ve got a really good squad. I think the management have had a great off-season and brought in some massive signings. Tonight was really important to me and the club to get our local guys out and get some game reps ahead of the year.”
Northstars media asked Manwarring what he would say to someone thinking about coming to see a Northstars game, “I feel like the Northstars have a habit of bringing people to games, and they end up making it their livelihood. Get to a game. You won’t be disappointed. Week in and week out, we put on a great show.”
Head Coach Kevin Noble shared, “It’s early days and we try to have as much structure as we could in our game and worked on a few things, but we try not to overwhelm the guys early on.”
“We looked more tonight at our compete, our conditioning and the little details and habits in our game. Just getting back involved physically and seeing where our game habits and conditioning are at”
“It’s hard to recreate the play like in the third period of that game in a practice situation where the guys can feel the stress of the building, tied hockey game and having to overcome some adversity like having a lead, falling behind and getting it back. So all these things is good for our group early on to realise and grow accustomed to.”
“So, all in all, it was a good game, and we go again next week for our last dress rehearsal in Erina next week and continue to build on things before we go to Perth for the first regular season game.”
The Northstars will play their second pre-season game in Erina on the 29th March. They then fly to Perth for the 5th and 6th April to open the regular season, and return home on the 12th April vs the Rhinos.
