Saturday 16th June 2012, saw an early start for Mearns Castle/Glasgow City as they made the 3 hour drive up to Rubislaw playing fields to take on Aberdeen City on this momentous day in Scottish Lacrosse. The first ever U16 Boys Lacrosse development game, which would not have been possible without the hard work of Stefan Wyroslawski who initiated the development of U16 boys lacrosse in Glasgow.

Nothing was going to dampen everyone spirits despite the typical Aberdonian weather trying its best to halt play, as the grey clouds and rain cam tumbling in.

The day started with a joint training season taken by Glasgow City's Coach Grinter, who appeared to be pleasantly surprised by the skills being shown on display. A quick lesson on attacking and defensive formation were given and the option for softer tackling, which quickly rejected. Which was just as well as it made for a rather exciting game of 8's. Since both teams only had 6 players available for the game each team was allow to have two seniors on the field of play, but were only allowed to pass the ball.

The first quarter saw Greg Cahill faceoff against Glasgow City's David Currie to kick off proceedings, which was quickly won by Glasgow City. The quarter was end to end action as Mearns Castle boys wasted no time at all in getting on the scoreboard first, 1 - 0 Glasgow. The crowd was cheering their side on and giving encouragement, as tackles went in and ground ball were wrestled for.

Glasgow City seemed to have the upper hand in first quarter as their lead was increased to 2 - 0, with some nice dodging and a shot from the top of the crease, saw Glasgow fans screaming with joy. Aberdeen weren't to be disheartened too easily as Greg Cahill scored for the home side just before the end of the quarter to make it 2 - 1. The quarter also saw Gregor Curtis make some hits on a Glasgow player who was almost twice his size, and some nice saves from both goal keepers.

The second quarter saw Glasgow City starting this quarter just as they did in the first, as the quickly took control of the ball off the face-off and working round in attack. This dominance on the ball then led to a goal for Glasgow and the 2 goal lead restored. However, this lead was shorted lived as Theo Habelko, Lewis Kelly and Greg Cahill work well together in midfield, trying desperately hard to regain possession. The ball was then worked round in attack as Aberdeen tried to set themselves up for a goal. The ball found its way to Greg Cahill, off a pass from Theo Habelko, who then shot from crease to score his second of the game, 3 - 2 to Glasgow.

Boosted by the goal and the home fans cheering them on the Aberdeen boys rallied together to try and tie the game before the end of the half. Aberdeen found themselves with possession behind the goal from a saved shot. The ball found its way to Stuart Finlayson who calmly shot it into the back of the net to level the scores, 3 - 3. The rest of the quarter saw numerous ground scraps and even Jonny Shaw being dispossessed on a double team by Theo Habelko and Euan Cahill.

Half time and things got interesting as Aberdeen's top scorer was sick from running around so hard. With Aberdeen playing with a man down for a while the pressure was on to defend against a dangerous Glasgow team. With strong hits coming in from Euan Cahill and Lewis Kelly in defence, Aberdeen were able to keep Glasgow at bay. Unfortunately neither team was able to convert any of their shots as both goal keepers made several outstanding saves. With less than 3min left in the quarter Glasgow found themselves a man down as a player was sent to penalty box for 30 seconds, for slashing. The ball was passed around as Aberdeen made good use of the extra man. A pass from Gregor Curtis saw Euan Cahill dodge his way to goal and score, to give Aberdeen the lead for the first time in the game.

Glasgow never stopped trying to level the score before the end of the quarter, with both sets of players were getting tired Glasgow managed to pull one back. The quarter also saw a massive hit on Gregor Curtis, knocking his helmet clean off. Unfortunately, he sat the rest of the game out, but was not seriously hurt.

With a well earned rest Aberdeen managed to increase there lead in the fourth quarter to 2 goals with solo efforts from the Cahill brothers. It was now 6 - 4 in Aberdeen's favour. As the game went on though, the lack of substitutes took its toll on Aberdeen as Glasgow managed to fight back, with two very good goals. Final score Glasgow 6 - 6 Aberdeen.

A special thank you to everyone that was involved and helped make this happen. Hopefully this is the start of something prosperous for Scottish Lacrosse.

Aberdeen Line-up:

GK: David Nicolson
Def: Gregor Curtis, Euan Cahill
Mid: Greg Cahill, Lewis Kelly, Theo Habelko
Att: Stuart Finlayson, Corrie Bruce

Aberdeen Scorers:

Greg Cahill (3), Euan Cahill (2), Stuart Finlayson (1)

Referees:

Iain Dunlop, Ryan Hosick