Bridgwater College 1, Exeter College 3

DESPITE the best half of hockey produced all season, Team BC were unlucky to be on the end of a 3-1 defeat to regional champions Exeter College.

Despite a shaky start to the first half, Team BC enjoyed near domination for the remainder with Exeter unable to cope with the forward movement of Connor Gilliespie, Sam Beasley and Sean Hed-aux, and the driving runs from midfield of Liam Pigden.

It was one such run that produced the first goal with Pigden scoring a powerful reverse strike to give team BC the lead they deserved.

As the half progressed, Team BC had a number of chances to increase their lead, but failed to convert their short corners, and Will Osmand was unlucky not to finish off a good team move.

The competitive nature of the game began to tell as the game progressed with both teams reduced to ten men at some stage.

The scores levelled when Will Lawton blocked a short corner only for it to fall back to the striker, who smashed it in to the roof of the net.

With the scores level and momentum now with Exeter, Team BC found chances hard to come by, but were still competing against the regional champions.

With ten minutes to go, a penalty flick was awarded to Exeter and was expertly put away, giving Chatwin no chance.

With both sides now going on the attack, Team BC finally ran out of steam, and with a minute to go Exe-ter killed the game off with their third and final goal of the match.

Team BC coach Rob Morrish said: “I can’t fault the players today – the first half was the best half of hockey I’ve seen them play with every member of the side playing to the best of their potential and contributing.

“If we’d put away all our chances in the first half I think we’d have had enough to win the match, but sadly Exeter regrouped brilliantly in the second half and we ran out of steam come the end when we could have done with pushing on.”