U13A's dig deep to beat Boden

U13s continue to make good progress

The U13A’s had to dig deep for a win against close rivals Ballyboden St. Endas in a top of the table Division 1 clash on Saturday afternoon, 22 September in Deerpark. The players have shown great improvement this year under the assured guidance of Conor Crowley and first class coaching & mentoring from senior hurlers Naomhan Ó Ríordáin and Gary McMorrow, and this latest victory on Saturday made it ten wins from the last eleven league outings.

On a quick pitch, the game itself was played at a very fast pace from the first whistle and while scoring opportunities were few it was Ballyboden who had the slight edge in a close first half. Eoin Barr kept Crokes in touch with some fine points from play and Stephen Horgan scored a well-taken goal right on the stroke of half-time, after some good work by Mark Gilleran and Niall Brady. Playing into a slight breeze, a feature of the first half for Crokes was the steady defending of the full back line of Darragh Jones, David Cullen and Lorcan O’Connor and at half-time it was the away team who led by 1-03 to 1-02.

Ballyboden stretched their lead with an early goal in the second-half but Crokes replied with a number of pointed frees from Tom Kehoe and two lovely scores from play by Sean Kinsella. Ed Gibbons played his part in goals, with some quick stick-work and fine clearances down the field. Still two points down with just seven minutes to play Crokes then found another gear.  Scott Penny and Dan Crowley began winning frees with some hard running at the Boden defence - and they were duly converted by Tom. Paul Buckley, Eamon Keating and Michael Gibbons began to win all the loose ball on the half-back line. Crokes eased into a two point lead and then a long free into the away team’s goalmouth was deftly flicked into the net by Eoin. Another converted free in the dying seconds meant Crokes finished the game ahead by 2-11 to 2-05 at the final whistle. There were also fine contributions on the day from Michael Taafe, Barry MacGabhann and Tom Stakelum, in what was a very good all-round team performance.

Report by Alan Kehoe