Minor hurlers enjoy championship semi-final win over near-neighbours Watergrashill.
We were away to the Hill on a windy but dry evening for our minor hurling semi-final. A place in the final was a stake so tensions were high for both sides. We beat them earlier this year in the minor hurling league final so we were expecting a strong reaction from our opponents.
The game started fast as expected and our opponents got a few early scores. Our backs of Ronan, Denis, Jamie, Adam, Cathal & Gearoid started to settle under the puck outs and got our midfield duo of Cormac & Oliver on good ball. As you’d expect in any semi-final, there was a tough intensity and both side gave it their all with good scores from open play. There was plenty of frees for both sides as the tackle count increased all through the opening half.
Our captain Cormac had won the toss and we had a diagonal wind aiding us but it wasn’t easy to be accurate with scores. The Hill were playing well and turned us over a good few times as we were coming out of defense and got the only goal of the game. On the 25th minute, we added Mark to our defense which steadied us and had Finn as the third midfielder and moved good ball around and we topped up the scores to a half-time lead of 0-12 to 1-5.
The second half had even more intensity and some of the battles were fierce. Jack in our goals had a good save and was giving Sean, Conor & Michael good ball at center forward. They were working hard and contributed some great points.
We were playing a two-man full forward line of Jack & Matty and they were out in front of a tight Hill defence. They won some great ball and contributed with more points from play & frees.
It was down to a point with 10 minutes to go as we struggled to keep a hold of the game. We introduced Rudi & Garry to our attack and brought Matty out to centrefield and got a few scores back again and even created a goal chance which was well saved by the Hill. There was a red card for the Hill for a pretty reckless high tackle, and from that incident we lost Oliver to injury. We reorganized and spread the ball better finding the space on the field and finished with great team points. We worked hard right to the final whistle and won on a score line of 0-22 to 1-15
