County Juvenile Hurling Championship – Semi-Final
Kilmallock 3-10 Na Piarsaigh 1-09
Kilmallock Under 16 Hurlers booked a place in this year’s County Final following an
impressive victory over Na Piarsaigh at Páirc na nGael last Friday evening. Kilmallock
raced into a 3-3 to 0-0 lead and after twenty minutes of the first half had limited the
boys from Caherdavin to just a handful of forays into our half of the field and they had
just one point showing on the scoreboard as we headed for the half-time whistle. Goals
from David Woulfe and the magical Jack Maguire had us in the driving seat. Gearóid
Barry tortured the Na Piarsaigh defence with his vision and driving runs and Liam
English and Mike Donegan totally controlled the middle of the field. Josh O’Mahony at
full-back and Andrew Finn at centre-back lead by example with their no-nonsense style
of hurling. Aidan Enright, at half-back, mopped up everything that came his way and
launched many an attack with his clever distribution of the sliotar and Seán Donegan
gave an exhibition of corner-back play.
Kilmallock were winning all the key battles, in all areas of the field.
Then things boiled over and there followed an ugly series of incidents that the referee
had difficulty in handling. When he finally did restore order he plucked two players
from the crowd, one from each side, and flashed red cards. With both sides down to
fourteen men Na Piarsaigh finished the half better and went in at half time with
Kilmallock leading 3-4 to 0-4.
In the second half Na Piarsaigh tried to rescue the game and although they did score a
goal to reduce the deficit to four points the Kilmallock team, led by the excellent
Gearóid Barry, showed great maturity and hurling skill to guarantee their place in the
final.
This was a true team performance and every player, including the substitutes that came
in, played their part in this success.
Kilmallock : Seamus Connery, David O’Connor, Josh O’Mahony, Seán Donegan, Aidan
Enright, Andrew Finn, Dylan O’Brien, Liam English, Mike Donegan, David Carroll,
David Woulfe, Lorcan Casey, Joseph O’Donnell, Gearóid Barry, Jack Maguire.
Subs used : Timmy Roche for O’Donnell 40mins., Thomas Savage for O’Brien 45mins.
