GoCrea8 Hockey Premiership

Taunton Vale 3 Cardiff and Met 1

TAUNTON Vale fought back from a goal down to beat Cardiff and Met 3-1 under the floodlights at Gipsy Lane.

Karl Trunks scored twice for Vale after Ian Haley had levelled the scores early on, to give Vale a much needed three points.

Vale started with their concentration elsewhere, allowing the opposition to penetrate deep into their half.

The visitors found their stride and took the lead, but Vale were quick to equalise through striker Ian Haley, after a series of quick passes found the South African's stick uncontested close to the goal line.

The weather began to play its part as the heavens opened to drench both sides in near freezing conditions, and this cooled both sides as the first-half ended all square.

The hosts took the game to their opposition at the start of the second-half, bypassing their midfield to spray passes directly to their front line, which resulted in winning short corners to the delight of coach Ian Cordwell.

Karl Trunks stepped up to dispatch a swift drag flick into the bottom left corner of the goal to give Vale the lead.

The momentum gained by the home side was aggressively met by Cardiff, however following on from their first half performance, Cardiff were unable to find fruit for their labours.

Towards the final minutes of the match, Vale defender Trunks struck again to rub salt into the wound.

Finding himself unchallenged in the opposition circle, Trunks unleashed a tomahawk on the reverse into the top corner of the net, which could barely be seen by the naked eye.

Taunton Vale host a further two Premiership fixtures before the Christmas break – they play City of Bath on December 5, before taking on Firebrands on December 11.

Yeovil & Sherborne 1 Taunton Vale A 3

TAUNTON Vale A beat Yeovil and Sherborne 3-1 to strengthen their grip on second place in the league.

The victory sees Vale stretch their lead over third place Yeovil to five points.

Vale started the better and forced a few short corners, with David Gibson eventually converting one.

This forced Yeovil into action and they started to put a bit of pressure on Vale.

Yeovil were rewarded with a short corner which they converted to level.

This woke Vale and their press put the opposition under pressure.

Paul Hawkins intercepted, worked the baseline well and Tom Russell converted at the back post.

This was soon followed by a further interception by skipper Steve Rybaruk, who beat a man and passed on to Mark House.

House drove into the D and overran the ball, however, it fell nicely to Steve Rybaruk who shot into the corner.

Penzance 3 Taunton Vale B 3

THE Men’s thirds had a 300 mile round trip to Penzance for a top of the table clash.

Vale were looking dangerous up front with Richard Short going close after dribbling past a couple of defenders.

After good work from Dom Drew Vale won a penalty corner which Ben Luxton despatched into the top corner.

Vale’s lead was to last only a minute as a Penzance long ball was picked up by the striker and eventually bundled in for the equaliser.

In the second-half, Vale changed formation and began to mark the Penzance playmaker more tightly.

This was not to pay an immediate dividend as Vale conceded from a penalty corner.

Ed Whittle then made a superb goal line clearance to keep the deficit to only one goal.

Vale’s equaliser came from another long ball as Stock managed to deflect the ball over the keeper.

Drew then beat his man and his shot was deflected in by Stock at the far post to give Vale a deserved lead.

With just four minutes to go Vale were unlucky to concede another penalty corner which was duly despatched to level the scores.

Taunton Vale C 8 ISCA D 2

DAVE Tarr scored a hat-trick for Taunton Vale C as they cruised to an 8-2 demolition of ISCA D on Saturday.

Adam Pleeth and James Duder scored two apiece while Harry Riste completed the scoring.

James Duder opened the scoring, which set the tone for the afternoon as Vale went on to score four more before the break to lead 5-1 at half-time.

Early in the second-half, ISCA scored a goal to beg the question whether an epic come back was on the cards.

Sadly for ISCA this wasn’t the case as the depth and fresh legs on the Vale bench began to tell.

Vale spent more and more time in the opposition half and this led to a second scoring spree.

Man of the match went to Adam Pleeth whose work rate eclipsed the hat-trick from Dave Tarr.