County Premier Fé-16 Hurling Final
Blackrock 2-16 Carrigaline 3-9
Blackrock were crowned Under-16 Premier County hurling champions at Páirc Ui Rinn on Tuesday October 13th but the Carrigaline players can hold their heads high as they ran the hot favourites close and in the process contributed enormously to a high-quality game of hurling.
Four years ago at the same venue the sides met in the under-12 County Final. Carrig then took the honours but two years later at under-14 level Blackrock prevailed, so this latest final was the final showdown at juvenile level.
From the start Carrigaline showed they were up for the game when they got off to the best possible start with a cracking goal inside the first minute. From the throw-in Kevin Kavanagh picked up the ball and he found Jamie Kind whose pin-point pass put Michael Lynch in to goal after just 30 seconds of play. A minute later Cillian McSweeney was on target from a free to increase the lead.
Blackrock settled and began to dominate around the middle third and by the tenth minute had taken the lead on a 1-3 to 1-1 scoreline. Blackrock continued to dominate play and were it not for some great defending by Carrigaline they would have been further ahead. In that time Blackrock added four points, but gradually Carrigaline worked their way back into the game and a point from Robbie O’Shea made it 1-2 to 1-7 with 20 minutes gone.
A minute later Michael Lynch turned provider when he set up Jamie De Puis for Carrigaline’s second goal and when Lynch got his second of the game they were back in front, 3-3 to 1-7. Blackrock finished the half strongly with three points to lead 1-10 to 3-3 at the break.
Two early points for Blackrock increased their lead, with Cillian McSweeney and Robbie O’Shea replying for Carrig to keep only a point between the sides. Carrigaline were unlucky not to go in front when Michael Lynch doubled in the air on a Peter Mullane delivery, only to see his effort go narrowly wide. Blackrock added 1-1 to put some daylight between the sides, but to Carrig’s credit, they weren’t going to give op easily and McSweeney and O’Shea were on target again to reduce the deficit to two. Blackrock responded, but again Carrigaline came back at them and the lead was down to two again, 2-14 to 3-9, with two minutes left. Carrig pressed for the winner but Blackrock held firm and added two points to close out the game and bring to an end a really top-class game of hurling.
Carrigaline team and scorers: Robert Foster, Anthony O’Reilly, Michael O’Grady, Shane Griffin, Kevin O’Connell, Cillian McSweeney 0-4 (2f, 1 65), Stephen Dwane, Robert O’Shea 0-3 (2f), Kevin Kavanagh, Eoin Moynihan, Killian McIntyre 0-1, Jamie De Puis 1-0, Peter Mullane, Michael Lynch 2-1, Jamie Kind.
Subs: David Drinan for Peter Mullane, Darragh O’Sullivan for Anthony O’Reilly