Billingham Stars suffered the ultimate sporting heartbreak as they lost 2-0 against Blackburn Hawks on penalties following a 2-2 draw
Director of coaching Terry Ward said he could not fault his devastated Billingham Stars players after they produced arguably their best performance of the season in an agonising play-off semi-final defeat.
The Ultimate Windows Stars suffered the ultimate sporting heartbreak as they lost 2-0 against Blackburn Hawks on penalties following a 2-2 draw at the end-of-season showpiece in Dumfries.
In the other semi-final, hosts Solway Sharks dominated Whitley Warriors to ease to a 6-3 victory.
Sunday’s final was a niggly, penalty-strewn affair, Solway eventually overcoming Blackburn 2-0 to secure the League, Cup and Play-Off treble.
Billingham were at full strength for the first time since the turn of the year, but were always going to have their work cut out against a Hawks side that had put 16 goals past them in their previous two meetings.
Nevertheless, the Stars took the game to their opponents in the first period and were rewarded with the opening goal when Stephen Wallace scored with a power play effort while Blackburn’s Aaron Davies sat out a high sticking call.
A fight between Hawks’ Tom King and emerging Billingham youngster Jack Davies towards the end of the period fired up the Stars bench, and with just over a minute to go before the buzzer Wallace bagged his second to send the Teessiders into the dressing room two goals to the good.
Billingham were slow out of the blocks in the second period, and only 91 seconds in Blackburn registered a reply as Aaron Davies fired straight through Stars keeper James Flavell to make it 2-1.
The Stars began to look increasingly edgy, with mistakes creeping into their play, and a disastrous pass out of defence found Davies on the blue line and he made no mistake to bring the teams level with his second goal in the 37th minute.
With the stakes so high the third period was a tense, end-to-end affair, and the Billingham bench began to visibly tire as a lack of match fitness for some of the returning players began to take its toll.
Neither side gave any ground in the pursuit of a place in the final, and despite chances for both teams neither could find a way past Flavell or Hawks keeper Daniel Brittle.
Sixty minutes ended with the teams level and a five-minute sudden-death overtime session could not separate them either, meaning the game had to be decided with a penalty shootout.
Each team had three shots, and Blackburn captain Chris Arnone scored his side’s first.
Michael Elder failed with the Stars’ first attempt, then Hawks’ Canadian import Jon Adams and Billingham’s James Moss both missed from the second round of shots.
That left Blackburn’s outstanding player of the season Adam Brittle to snap up his chance to score and send the Hawks through and the Stars crashing out.
Ward said: “It’s a bitter pill to swallow when you go out on penalties, it doesn’t matter what the sport is.
“But I thought we played extremely well. We can take plenty of positives from the game. The Blackburn team cost a lot of money to put together.
“I’m really proud of the lads. They gave it everything – it was a fantastic game.”
Ward said the Billingham players can now enjoy a well-earned break before returning for the 2014-15 season in September.
“The boys need a rest – they’ve had a hard year with a lot of injuries. We’ve tried our best and done really well.”
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