U18 beaten in a close Semi Final against Stirling

Ellon U18 took on a rampant Stirling, away in the Semi final of the Caledonia Cup last Saturday. Upon arrival at the ground they found out we were playing on the "big pitch", the main pitch the First XV use in front of the stands.
The game began and for the first ten minutes each side tested one another, no quarter was being given by either side. The longer the game went with no scoring Ellon's confidence grew and the Stirling players were beginning to realise this was not going to be as easy as last year’s league encounter. After 20 minutes from a lineout just inside our half, a well worked training ground backs move released their winger who calmly rounded our full-back to score under the posts, which was duly converted, 7-0 Stirling.
From kick-off both teams defence was on top and the game was played in the middle of the park, until a mistake in midfield by the Stirling backs led to Aaron Bonnar intercepting and running from halfway line to under the posts to score which was also converted 7-7.
Stirling made a couple of changes at this point, (players earmarked to play for their Senior 3rd team if things had been going more in their favour).
This gave Stirling a slight boost and after some sustained pressure in Ellon's 22 ,scored, however they missed the kick 12-7 Stirling.
Ellon attacked the restart and gathered the ball and for the next 5 minutes play was mostly in Stirling's half, with both sides having time on the ball.
An Ellon penalty which was kicked into Stirling's 22, from the lineout Ellon had a number of phases through the forwards and when the ball looked to be going out to the backs, a gap opened up which Nathan Shirron darted through to score, again Paul Paxton added the extras 12-14 Ellon.
Stirling restarted and again play went back and forth in the middle with equal possession until half time.
Second half was no different from the first, with both teams throwing everything at one another,
Ellon had two long range penalty attempts but both fell just short.
20 minutes into the second half and Ellon were having to defend more and more and eventually Stirling crashed over, conversion was missed 17-14 Stirling.
For the remainder of the half both teams were equal with again the game being played between the 10m lines, until 5 minutes from the end Stirling began to dominate and Ellon's penalty count started to raise. From the lineouts, Stirling started to maul and again more penalties were conceded as we tried to combat them, and eventually Ellon's defence was broken for Stirling to score, conversion missed 22-14.
From the kick-off Ellon made some ground but after a number of phases it was the final whistle.
To come so close to beating Stirling in their own back yard is a huge achievement for this group of players and shows how far this side has come from the one that lost here in September 71-0.
Massive thanks to Ellon’s ever growing away support.
Sean Whyte, Kieran O'Brien, Max Poole, Grant Drummond(C), Jack Munro, Jake Martin, Ben Fordyce, Sam Archibald, Nathan Shirron, James Evans, Aaron Bonnar, Paul Paxton, Ruari Taylor, Sam Tateson, Reece Christie, Callum Williamson, Fraser Cruickshank, Stuart Ovall, (WB) Camran Taylor
Ellon U18’s now proceed to the Caledonia Bowl Final on 26th April at St Andrews where they play Highland.