Under 15 Hurlers – Open Championship Campaign with A Hard Earned Win.

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Date of Match: 11th April 2006

Versus: Ballyboden St Endas      Venue: Cherryfield

Competition: Under 15 Division 1 Championship Round Robin 1

Management Team: Pat Halpin, Daibhi dePaor, Fionan Moriarty, Tom Murphy

Match Result

Crokes 2 - 12 v Ballyboden St Endas 0 - 03

Scorers;

Crokes: Jamie O’Sullivan (1 – 06 (0 – 02 f)), Naomhan Reardon (0 – 05), Killian Doherty (1 – 01)

Match Report/ Match Highlights:

Under 15 Hurlers – Open Championship Campaign with A Hard Earned Win.

On a breezy Tuesday evening the Crokes Under 15 hurlers opened their Under 15 Championship campaign with a hard won victory over Ballyboden St Endas on a bare Cherryfield pitch.

Crokes started the match playing with a stiff breeze and opened strongly, when Killian snatched a point after 45 seconds after winning the ball out on the wing. Naomhan opened his account in the 5th minute with a well-worked point, after Jamie struck a lovely cross-field ball to him. Jamie had to wait until the 10th minute to get his first, with a well taken free. The Ballyboden backs were playing well and making life very difficult for the Croke’s forwards, who, despite being fed loads of ball from the halfback and midfield lines were finding goal opportunities very scarce. Naomhan added his second score in the 13th minute, then Jamie added his second in the 19th minute, he then won a free straight from the puck out and converted it, two minutes later he added another point to his tally. Killian then interrupted Jamie’s flow, when in the 23rd minute he added a great goal to his earlier point, he again won the ball out on the wing and soloed towards the goal before unleashing an unstoppable shot into the back of the net. An important score, as Crokes needed to use the wind advantage to build up their score before half time. Jamie finished off the first half scoring with another great score, a long range effort that went over the black spot. At half time, Crokes were leading 1 – 08 to 0 – 00. Crokes were playing well; the full back line mopped up everything that came their way, Cian and the two Jacks’ left Barry with little to do. The halfback line were dominating, Darren and Bill were driving great ball into the forwards and Alan was cleaning up a lot of loose ball. But with Ballyboden playing with the wind in the second half, we knew that we were in for a tough second half.

A tight opening few minutes saw few opportunities for either side, but Ballyboden did open their account with a well taken free in the 4th minute and added another free in the 12th minute. The wind was playing a big part in the game and little ball was reaching the full forward line, but Naomhan reacted well to a great ball hit in from Mathew and slotted over Croke’s opening point. Ballyboden then added their third and final point of the game with another converted free in the 16th minute. Having soaked up a lot of pressure and the Crokes backs flexed their muscles and took control of the game and the forwards also started to dominate their opposing backs, who up to now had the better of the second half. In a four minute spell, starting in the 20th minute, Jamie and Naomhan killed off the Ballyboden challenge with two scores each. Jamie won the ball outside the 21-yard line and made an unstoppable run for goal and buried the ball into the back of the net. Two minutes later Naomhan hit over a great point, followed in quick succession by another point each by Jamie and Naomhan.

In the end Crokes ran out winners with a healthy 2-12 to 0-03 margin. But the game was not as easy as the scoreline indicates. Ballyboden kept challenging and it was due to a powerful performance from all the seven backs (includes Peter who came on in the second half) that Ballyboden were kept scoreless from play. Overall it was a great performance by the whole Crokes team.

The next outing is against Erin’s Isle in the second round robin match of the Championship on the 2nd May ’06. Isles will be a much tougher proposition, they also are unbeaten so far this season.

Kilmacud Crokes:

Barry Mulligan, Cian O’Brien, Jack Kelly, Jack Doughan, Darren McVeigh, Bill O’Carroll, Alan Carr, Matthew Kinsella, Eddie O’Byrne, Killian Doherty, Jamie O’Sullivan, Eoin Dalton, Sean Murphy, Naomhan Reardon, Johnny Brew.

Subs: Fiachra Lynn for Johnny Brew in 45th minute, Peter McCague for Cian O’Brien in 46th minute & Hugh Byrne for Eoin Dalton in 50th minute.

Unavailable: - Louis Whelan, Mark O’Dwyer, Paul Collins & Seanie McGrath.

Congratulations to the Under 15 B team and management who had a convincing win over St Peregrines up in Silverpark in their opening Championship game.

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