St Albans stayed top of the East League Premier Division table with a thumping 8-1 victory at Spalding.
It was the Oaklands College-based hockey club’s eighth win in nine games and keeps them one point clear of City of Peterborough.
Dave Williams’s hat-trick lit up the scoring charts, closely followed by Matt Davey’s brace.
Steve McManus, Tariq Marcano and Ian Scanlon chipped in with the others.
Head coach Andy Bowskill was delighted with the score, which means they are now averaging four goals per-game.
He said: “Our goal-scoring touch was at its spectacular best again on Saturday. A series of three or four top quality short passes in front of goal resulted in several goals.”
The visitors made steady progress throughout the first half, scoring at regular intervals.
The first came when the Spalding keeper was unable to keep out a low, hard, drag flick from captain Davey and the second was added by McManus who fired home after a good counter-attack move.
Davey added the third before half-time with a carbon copy of his first.
Marcano flicked home a fourth from open play early in the second half and this finally brought a response from the hosts who pulled one back after their best spell of the match.
But the Tangerines soon got back into their stride, scoring four in quick succession.
Williams bagged his trio one after the other, one of which came after fine work by 15-year-old man-of-the-match Luke Kennedy.
And Scanlon wrapped things up, deflecting in after neat work by McManus.
Blueharts visit Oaklands next.
There was good news for the ladies too as they came away from their bottom-of-the table clash at Chelmsford in the Investec Conference East with a 2-0 win.
Both sides were winless going in but Saints were out of the traps quickly and Briony Anyon scored the first from a short corner.
Lexi Hamilton drew the keeper and slid the ball in for 2-0 and although Chelmsford pressed in the second half, the Tangerines could have extended their lead with a number of chances.
As it was they didn’t need to and they will head into Saturday’s game against Harleston Magpies in buoyant mood.
Ella Dagnall was named player of the match.
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