St John the Baptist BNS, Cashel 3-8
Carrick CBS, Clonmel 1-4
Leahy Park, Cashel, 8 May 2015
Referee: John Ryan (B)
For the second game in a row St John the Baptist BNS scored 3-8 over forty minutes of hurling in their Roinn A U13 Cumann na mBunscol encounter against Carrick CBS. And similar to two weeks ago when the Cashel boys welcomed St Mary’s to Leahy Park, yellow warning type conditions meant that each side had to dig deep for every score.
Fortunately for Cashel, they started brightly with a well taken goal from corner forward Andrew Burke who pounced on a breaking ball to whip the sliotar to the back of the net from the ground. He was joined soon after by full forward Evan Moloney who also showed predatory instincts to raise the green flag.
Team captain Jack McGrath missed a couple of early frees before composing himself and finding the measure of the conditions to point some excellent scores from frees. The Carrick boys, meanwhile, kept the scoreboard ticking over by taking advantage of the wind to put over some fine long range scores.
Half time saw the game quite delicately poised with Cashel ahead on a scoreline of 2-3 to 0-3.
Carrick CBS retreated to the relative warmth of the dressing rooms while the Cashel boys took refuge in the corner of the stand where they changed jerseys and shared ‘hand warmers’, team selectors PJ Dunne and Paddy Moloney leaving no stone unturned in ensuring the boys were ready for battle.
After some final words of encouragement and advice from Mr Ryan and an enforced half time substitution (centre back Ethan Gayson Molloy was injured), the young Cashel combatants were ready to resume against the boys from the banks of the Suir.
Two weeks earlier, St John the Baptist BNS had only scored one point in the second half and they seemed determined from the restart to change that statistic with Conor O’ Dwyer fortuitously netting from long range.
Cashel now seemed poised, with the wind at their backs, to go on and win the game comfortably. Carrick, however, had other ideas and battled and foraged gamely in river-like underfoot conditions to restrict the Rock men.
Dónal Ryan was getting on a lot of ball at this stage and passed it around unselfishly before capping off a solid performance with a tasty long range score.
As the rain continued to pelt down and the ball became almost impossible to snap, the partnership of Conor O’Dwyer and Cathal Quinn led from the centre to keep the ball pucked in to a now much changed forward line. All substitutes got a decent run and gave management much to ponder before the next game.
Alex Dunne and Eoghan Murphy were rock solid as was goalkeeper Ross Whelan who was kept busy throughout as Carrick looked for gaps in Cashel’s defensive wall. The boys in green were eventually rewarded for their persistence with a rasper of a goal that proved to be the last puck of the game.
Cashel had got over the line and into an U13 county semi final on a scoreline of 3-8 to 1-4. It was a decent performance from the boys in blue and gold, and one where they showed an excellent attitude and appetite for work in what were frankly miserable conditions for the month of May. The team has boys from fourth to sixth class and every player contributed handsomely to what was an excellent team performance.
A special word of thanks to Carrick CBS and their manager Denis Cotter for their sportsmanship. Go raibh mile maith agaibh, too, to the parents, grandparents and supporters who braved the elements to cheer on our boys.
The semi final pairings have yet to be finalised.
Cashel U13 Panel:
- Ross Whelan
- Alex Dunne
- Eoghan Murphy (Vice-Capt)
- Patrick Quinlan
- Ross Minogue
- Ethan Gayson Molloy
- Fabian Ryan
- Cathal Quinn
- Conor O’Dwyer
- TJ Barron
- Jack McGrath (Capt)
- Dónal Ryan
- Ronan Connolly
- Evan Moloney
- Andrew Burke
16. Ben White, 17. Corey Hynes, 18. Dillon Murphy, 19. Liam Corcoran, 20. Lee O’Riordan, 21, Andrew Irwin
