Cockermouth are through to the semi-final of the Papa John’s competition after a magnificent 21-17 win at Goole.
The Yorkshire 1 champions hadn’t been beaten at home for two years or conceded three tries in any of those games.
Cockermouth scored three converted tries to win the game and set up a semi-final trip to Harlow next Saturday.
Coach Jeff Clare said: “I am so proud of these players after yet another outstanding performance. To a man they were superb and for the last 10 minutes were under real pressure but refused to crack with some outstanding defence.
“Goole are a very good side as their record indicates so to go there and beat them was a wonderful effort.
“The key period was the first 15 minutes of the second half when we really took charge of the game to score two converted tries. They scored twice after that but our defence was magnificent as the lads were prepared to tackle everything when it was needed.”
The Wasps had beaten the Durham and Northumberland 1 champions, West Hartlepool last week so to follow-up by beating the Yorkshire 1 champions in their own back yard was quite an achievement.
The hosts had gone 7-0 ahead with a converted try before Cockermouth began to get a foothold in the game and levelled late-on when Dan Woodcock scored a very good try from a quickly taken tap, He added the conversion.
Goole were clearly a good, confident side but for the third quarter of the game they were outclassed by the Cumbrians.
Ian McDowell got over for the second try, again converted by Woodcock and with the Wasps dominant in the scrum Mike Stephens added a third touchdown from a push-over which Woodcock converted.
Cockermouth could even have put more daylight between the two sides but they had what seemed a perfectly good try disallowed.
Then came the Goole response, with two tries, but Cockermouth defended with great enthusiasm and commitment to finish the job and earn the trip to Essex for the semi-final.
