SOLIHULL Barons ensured their unbeaten home record continued into 2020 after blitzing Sutton Sting 9-3 in the Moralee Division.
It was the tenth win at Hobs Moat Road this term and the sixth in the league for Daniel Brittle’s men, although it seemed anything but a straightforward victory was on the cards when Stanislav Lascek (1.39) opened the scoring for the visitors.
Despite being a man down, Solihull levelled when Adam Brittle flew down the right flank before firing a pass into Niklas Ottosson’s path to guide the puck into the net at 11.45.
Barons led a couple of minutes afterwards when Rich Slater’s instinctive finish (13.56) left Sutton netminder Ben Ward powerless, before a breakaway from Brittle (18.57) led to the forward netting Solihull’s third of the evening.
A one-sided second period followed to further establish the Barons’ control of the encounter, with a second for Ottosson (20.23) following within seconds of the puck drop.
Slater was next to claim a brace, striking on 25.06 when being well placed yet again to follow in from Callum Bowley’s saved penalty shot.
Tom Soar got in on the act to supply the hosts’ sixth (28.11) and round off the scoring for the middle period, with the final 20 starting in a similar vein with two further unanswered strikes.
First, Daniel Mulcahy found the net at 41.59, before his brother Phil Mulcahy followed suit on 45.04.
Sutton were not prepared to go quietly however, reducing the deficit through Charlie Saunders (50.52) prior to Slater’s hat-trick goal (51.32) for Solihull’s ninth and final goal of the evening.
The visitors had the last say, albeit in defeat, when Ryan Johnson broke away to score a consolation (59.24) in the final minute of play.
Solihull visit Nottingham Lions on Sunday (7pm) in league action in their final fixture of the year.
