League Express BARLA National Cup, Second Round: Stanningley 16 Scorpions 20 THIS was the third year the Scorpions have entered the competition and a superb all-round performance saw them register their first win.

The Scorpions squad included former Great Britain student international Steve Woodburn who was on the bench.

Seventeen-year-old Ben Simpson scored a scintillating first half hat-trick to set the Scorpions up for a hard-earned victory.

If he continues at the same rate of progress he has a great future in the game.

Stanningley's discipline let them down in the early exchanges as they gave away penalties, with referee Lee Carson clamping down on them straight away.

Craig Campbell's normally trusty boot could have given the Scorpions an early lead from a couple of penalties but he was just off target. The Scorpions pressure finally paid off when full-back Simon Pritchard came into the line and created the overlap for Simpson to score his first try in the corner.

Stanningley's ill discipline continued and Campbell punished them by kicking a penalty.

Then stand-off Gareth Chadwick made a break from his own 20 metre line and passed to winger Simpson who raced over.

Campbell added the conversion to give the Scorpions a 12-0 lead.

And it was Campbell who created the third try for Simpson as he went on a 30 metre run down the wing and passed inside to the supporting Simpson who scored under the posts.

Campbell converted to give the Scorpions an 18-0 lead at half-time.

The Leeds team came out fired up for the second half and pressured the Scorpions into making basic errors.

They knocked on a couple of times and gave Stanningley territorial advantage from which they scored two tries to make the score 18-10. The Scorpions were finding it difficult to get out of their own half.

But on one rare occasion when they did they had the ball stolen in the tackle and the Stanningley scrum half scored a converted try to peg the score back to 18-16.

It was nail-biting stuff for the travelling Blackpool fans.

But as the half wore on the Scorpions gradually gained control and their defence was magnificent.

As the time was running out, the Leeds outfit grew more desperate and gave away a needless penalty which Craig Campbell converted.

But the Scorpions managed to hang on to seal a superb confidence boosting victory which will hopefully set them up for a glorious run in the competiton.