Billingham Stars bounced back from a double-figure defeat at English Premier League leaders The Tigers in the British Challenge Cup by trouncing North-east rivals Whitley Warriors 8-1 in the National League (North) Moralee Division One.
The Ultimate Windows-sponsored Stars rocked the hosts by opening the scoring through Callum Davies with just over four minutes of their first weekend match played in Telford.
However constant Tigers pressure eventually told, with Joe Miller equalising in the ninth minute before Dan Davies moved the hosts ahead on a delayed penalty call in the 17th minute.
The EPL leaders’ class showed in the middle session as they scored four unanswered markers. Scott McKenzie (two), Peter Szabo and Miller took the teams into the interval at 6-1.
Billingham’s short bench and the Tigers’ superior fitness told in the final session as the visitors ran out of steam with Dan Scott, Nathan Salem, Richard Plant, Davies and Adam Taylor all scoring to wrap up an 11-1 win by the hosts.
Man-of-the-match for Billingham was Will Robson.
But in Sunday’s Tyne-Tees derby encounter at the Forum, the home side were all over the Warriors from the first drop of the puck.
Billingham went close to opening the scoring on numerous occasions before, six seconds into their first powerplay opportunity in the 14th minute, Michael Elder tipped in a Richie Thornton shot from the blue line.
Despite all of the pressure, the session ended with the Stars just one goal to the good. However a six-minute spell in the second session crushed the visitors.
Chris Sykes started the rout in the 23rd minute, before Ben Davison, Michael Bowman and Elder all added to it.
Man-of-the-match Elder’s goal led to Mark Turnbull replacing Richie Lawson between the Whitley pipes for the remainder of the game.
But with Turnbull in cold, Emerson scored the home side’s sixth in the 31st minute and Thomas Stuart-Dant rifled in goal No 7 in the final minute.
The Stars looked like they would continue to heap misery on their beleaguered neighbours when Elder scored his hato-trick goal in the 43rd minute, but the Warriors denied Flavell his shut-out when they eventually grabbed a consolation marker through DJ Good whilet on a five-on-three powerplay in the 47th minute.
After that Billingham seemed content to play possession hockey and ran the clock down to secure one of their biggest derby wins in recent times.
Stars director of coaching Terry Ward said: “We set our stall out and said we were going to be intensive, we were going to follow through with our hits, we were going to play at 100 miles an hour - with our heads up though and be smart - and pass the puck around, and I think we did that in the first period, straight from the word go we never let them settle.
“The chances that weren’t going for us in past games we buried them this time and they went in where before they hadn’t. We knew we had it in us and we’ve just got to keep that momentum going now.”
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