KEIGHLEY Cougars secured a home quarter-final against Swinton Lions on the weekend of March 14-15 after blitzing amateurs East Leeds 64-0 in the opening round of the iPro Sport Cup at Cougar Park.

Lewis Graham opened the scoring after just four minutes, going over in the corner from a lovely Paul Handforth crossfield kick, and Cougars extended the lead two minutes later when an Olly Pursglove break allowed Rikki Sheriffe to fight his way over the line.

East Leeds steadily built their confidence back up but it was shattered when Handforth broke to send Danny Lawton over in the right-hand corner.

And it was that corner which saw more action when Graham dived over for the first of three tries in eight first-half minutes. Ash Lindsay was the beneficiary of a series of clever offloads, with Handforth squeezing over from his own kick.

After a quiet start to the second half, Lindsay broke the amateur outfits’ line to go in under the posts and, a minute later, Handforth went over from dummy half for his second try.

Lindsay and Graham wrapped up their respective hat-tricks within minutes of each other, with the former battling over from a break, with the latter touching down another Handforth kick.

Paul White completed the rout on the final hooter as he raced over into the corner after a clever pass by David March.

Cougars’ player-coach Paul March said: “Danny Jones’ kicking was superb this afternoon, and that, with the performances of Ash (Lindsay) and Lewis (Graham), paved the way for our victory.”

iPro Sport League One Cup – Second-round draw: York City Knights v Newcastle Thunder, North Wales Crusaders v Rochdale Hornets, Keighley Cougars v Swinton Lions, Barrow Raiders v Oldham.