Kendal stand third in Regional 1 North West after a confident home win by 47-20 against Northwich.
The Mint Bridge side went ahead after ten minutes with an unconverted try by Adrian Karlese after the had quickly moved scrum ball out wide.
It was against the run of play when Northwich drew level after Kendal fumbled a quick throw which allowing Logan Mitchell the opportunity to gather the ball and
It took only three minutes for Kendal to regain the lead after Northwich were again penalised at a line-out. Matt Houghton drove forward well after taking a quick tap but he was halted by a high tackle which resulted in a penalty and was put over by Aaron Stephens.
Five minutes later the lead was extended when some indifferent defence gave Kendal the opportunity to attack the Northwich line. A good break by Stephens and accurate pass to Karlese provided him with his second try which was nicely converted from the touchline by Stephens.
It was at this point the match went downhill for the visitors. Mitchell was shown a red card for a high shoulder tackle and this was followed by two yellow cards for deliberate knock-ons.
With a three-man advantage and an attacking scrum Kendal scored again. Karlese fed Dan Shorrock who had a lot to do, but still found a way through three Northwich tacklers to get the try which Stephens converted.
At 22-5 and Northwich in apparent disarray it looked a foregone conclusion, although Kendal conceded a number of early penalties at the start of the second half.
They did manage to score, however, after Northwich lost the ball and Barney Coxon put in the hard yards before Stephens moved the ball wide for Karlese to complete his hat-trick with the bonus point try.
A fifth try soon followed as Leo Mercer dismissed the options around him and just backed himself to make the line with a strong charge. He succeeded and at 32-5 it was damage limitation for Northwich.
Back to 14 men they showed a fighting spirit that gave their travelling supporters a chance to cheer by scoring two unconverted tries in quick succession.
The first was from a penalty which saw Taylor Haugh send a long pass to Tom Husbands and he raced in for the touchdown.
With Northwich pressing the line, led by their man of the match Gabriel Sipapate, the ball was worked After an hour man of the match Karlese broke through at speed to scored his fourth try which Stephens converted.
The next try was probably Kendal’s best of the game with hooker Seth Haddad involved twice, with also involvement from Naki Saumaki before Dini Noyo burst through to score.
Despite being well in front Kendal decided to let Stephens take a penalty and soon afterwards they had Mercer yellow-carded.
Northwich threw everything into scoring the bonus point try and were rewarded when Haugh gathered a loose ball and ran the length of the pitch to secure the bonus point. The conversion was missed.
