FURNESS Cavaliers Blues turned up the heat on rivals Furness Rovers Royals to land the Furness FA Youth Cup with a five-star performance at Holker Street.
Moses Helliwell grabbed a hat-trick as they made it two trophies from two finals – with a third possibly to come in the Barrow JFL KO Cup next week.
Cavaliers – already champions in the Ulverston Hospitals Cup – were quick out of the blocks.
Their physical presence told in the early exchanges as they forced a number of corners.
After six minutes, Cavaliers made the breakthrough as Helliwell rifled home a thunderous pile-driver from 20 yards into the top corner of the net.
Jordan McGarry doubled the lead just three minutes later, ghosting down the left flank and firing home across the Rovers keeper.
The Royals began to settle and neat interchanges down the left channel after good work by Ryan Higgins gave them some brief respite.
Higgins stuck to his task well and was again released down the left, only to see Will Hackett save at his feet on the edge of the box. In doing so, the keeper handled outside the area, but escaped without a booking.
From the resultant Rovers free-kick, Henry Chatfield curled a delightful effort goal-bound, only to see his effort cannon back off the crossbar with the keeper well beaten.
Cavaliers resumed their dominance with neat footwork from George Hornby as the Blues cranked up the pressure.
Rovers did well to ride the storm, but just after the half-hour neat work from Jack Roberts and a slide-rule pass put Helliwell through to slot home across the keeper for his second of the day.
Starting the second period three down, Rovers showed some resilience, with Jack Smith making inroads through the Cavs defence.
This spurred Cavaliers back into action, with Ben Boulton smashing a rising shot against the bar from 30 yards as the Blues got back on the front foot.
A great cross-field ball from Lewis Waterston saw Helliwell slip his marker and the Rovers defence scrambled to get in a great block.
From the corner, Boulton increased the lead for the Blues, who displayed great strength in depth throughout their squad as regular interchanges were made from the bench.
The game was played at a good tempo as referee Keenan Wright allowed the match to flow, but the Rovers midfield could not contain their opponents and Cavaliers won most knock-downs and second phase balls, starving their opponents’ strike force of any noteworthy service.
Giving the ball away in their own half, Rovers were again reeling as Cavaliers fed Helliwell, with the resultant shot across the keeper creeping into the corner for Cavaliers’ fifth, as Joe Dunford could only get a hand to it.
Rovers battled on and managed to contain their opponents for the final quarter.
Hornby and Boulton combined well with a back-heel, which Dunford did well to save, and Cavaliers rattled the bar from long range in the final moments.
Martin Amison, of sponsors Leck Construction, presented the cup and medals and awarded Helliwell the man-of-the-match accolade.
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