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Boreham Wood cruised to a 2-4 win over Torquay United on Tuesday night, with Shaun Jeffers and Bradley Sach both getting off the mark for the campaign.
Angelo Balanta opened the scoring in the second half, capitalizing on a mistake from the Torquay defence.
Bruno Andrade doubled the scoring shortly after, but the Wood made hard work of the win. Torquay briefly pulled the scoring level, following goals from Jake Gosling and Ruairi Keating.
The away side regained the lead with a goal from Shaun Jeffers and a late goal from PASE graduate Bradley Sach.
Luke Garrard made two changes from the win on Saturday, with Shaun Jeffers and Ryan Johnson replacing Paul Benson and Dave Stephens.
It was an even start to the game with the Wood’s best chance of the opening stages coming through Keiran Murtagh.
The midfielder’s long ball was dropped by Torquay stopper Ryan Clarke and Balanta pounced, but the referee pulled it back for a foul.
A long ball from Torquay then caught the Wood defence off-guard, but Grant Smith charged from his line and narrowly beat the attacker to the ball.
A second-long ball from Torquay picked out Keating, but the attacker was off balance and unable to flick it past Smith.
Ryan Higgins’ corner caused confusion in the Wood box but Murtagh battled back the ball and powered up-field.
The Wood should have opened the scoring when Balanta threaded the ball through to Jeffers; Jeffers turned the last man and curled it around Clarke, but the stopper got a foot to it. Jeffers swiped at the loose ball again, but it was the same outcome and Andrade then back heeled the rebound, but Myles Anderson blasted it off the line.
Luke Young crossed dangerously but Smith charged out and picked the ball from the head of Gosling, who had looked certain to score.
Young was then fed down the right and drove it low across the box for Gosling, but Jamie Turley dove in to block.
Murtagh lifted the ball over the Gulls defence and fed Jeffers, the forward touched it beyond Clarke, but it drifts wide.
Young picked up a through ball inside the area and looks to slide it past Smith, but Turley slid in to clear once again.
The Wood broke the deadlock shortly before the hour mark, a horrible mistake from Torquay allowed Balanta to steal the ball from the defence and smash it past Clarke.
A further mistake from the Torquay defence then almost allowed Jeffers the same opportunity, but Clarke was alive and cleared.
Andrade then doubled the Wood’s advantage, he stole the ball from the Torquay defence, rounded his marker and curled the ball past Clarke.
It proved to be a lively ten minutes as Gosling then pulled one back for Torquay, meeting a cross from the right to nod past Smith.
It looked like the Gulls may then equalise when Young found himself one-on-one with Smith, but Murtagh charged back and slid the ball from beneath his feet at the vital moment.
Jeffers broke forward and was hauled down in the box by Anderson, giving the away side the opportunity to regain their two-goal advantage, however Balanta was denied from the spot by the hand of Clarke.
Garrard’s side were left kicking themselves shortly after as Torquay equalised, Keating was threaded down the middle and slipped his marker, before tucking the ball beneath Smith.
However, the Wood were soon infront once again, Jeffers lost his marker in the box and lofted a header above Clarke that nestled into the bottom corner.
Torquay were left chasing the match, when in the dying embers of the game, a long-ball found Sach, who took the ball down, and fizzled it past Clarke to secure the win.
Torquay United: Clarke (GK), Lathrope, McGinty, Chaney (Fallon), Young, Pittman (Gray), Keating, Gosling, Anderson, Klukowski, Higgins.
Subs not used: Osborn (GK), Reid, Haworth.
The Wood: G Smith (GK), K Smith, Turley, Champion, Johnson (Woodards), Shakes, Murtagh, Ricketts ©, Andrade (Benson) , Balanta, Jeffers (Sach)
Subs not used: Bozkurt, Keita
Goals:
Torquay: Gosling (58), Keating (72)
The Wood: Balanta (51), Andrade (57), Jeffers (73), Sach (90+)
Attendance: 1,864
