National League: Oxford 10 Lee Valley 1

Lee Valley Lions were left seeing stars after a heavy defeat in a penalty-littered affair.

The visitors got off to a perfect start as Romanas Fedotovas opened the scoring with only 17 seconds gone.

But it proved a false dawn as Alan Green levelled with a shorthanded effort for the hosts and Joe Oliver put Oxford ahead before the first break.

Lions lost James Hatfull to a match penalty for roughing and Oxford made them pay during the major powerplay, scoring three times at the start of the second period through Darren Elliott, James Pentecost and Sam Broughton to take control.

Stars lost Joe Edwards to a 5+game penalty for high sticks, but Lions could not take advantage and fell further behind as Jacob Smith and Nick Oliver made it 7-1.

Lee Valley’s Theo Abban picked up a 10-minute misconduct penalty late in the middle session, with Nick Alley given a roughing minor on the buzzer after a clash with Joe Oliver.

Stars netted their eighth through Joshua Oliver within two minutes of the restart, but Lions then held out until the closing stages, when Pentecost and Elliott grabbed their second goals inside the last 4:10 of play to take the high-flying hosts into double figures.

Lions are on the road again next weekend as they visit lowly Invicta Mustangs on Saturday.

Scorers, Stars: Elliott 2+2 Pentecost 2 Joe Oliver 1+4 Green 1+3 Nick Oliver 1+2 Jacob Smith 1+1 Joshua Oliver 1 Andrew Cox 0+1.

Lions: Fedotovas 1 Hodge 0+1.

Shots on goal: James Skaife (Stars) 22 Aaron Mallet (Lions) 59.

Penalty minutes: Stars 49 Lions 51.