U11 Hurling League Round 1 11.05.19

Newcastle West …… 4-5

Adare ……………….… 4-5

In near perfect conditions for hurling Newcastle West welcomed Adare to Pairc na Gael last Saturday morning. Adare may have fancied themselves to control this match, but the gutsy performance by our young Newcastle West hurlers left no-one in doubt that our boys will hold their own with the best of them. While Adare edged on tactics picking out team mates with precision short passes our lads to a man stood up and brought the game to Adare from the off. After a few shots off target, Declan O'Grady opened the scoring with a well taken point. A lovely ball from our half backs split the Adare defense for Declan to run onto and breaking a tackle he struck the ball to the back of the net. Shortly after the referee correctly overruled the umpires and awarded Darragh O'Keeffe his first point of the match. Rory Vaughan and Tristan Kirwan were rock solid in defense, giving an exhibition of blocking and hooking, clearing everything Adare sent their way. Adare were rattled and took a long while to settle into the match, however they finished the first half stronger taking the lead with two goals in quick succession, lobbing high balls into the square that our boys had trouble dealing with. Adare tapped over a few points at the start of the second half before the first of 3 Newcastle West second half goals put the home side in control of the match. Patrick Ryan showed great determination winning a ball out wide and sent it into Declan O'Grady to strike his second goal. Mark Cussen is showing great promise in goals, oozing confidence to deal with wayward Adare shooting, and clearing the ball well to midfield. The towering Leon O'Flynn, who dominated the half back line all day, caught an Adare puckout and drove it in for Declan to rifle home for his hat trick. Adare responded with a goal and a point to stay in touch before Tiernan Horgan got off the mark with a point from a well taken free and followed it up with a rasping shot for the umpire to raise the green flag. As fulltime approached Adare needed a goal to level the match. Newcastle West dug deep and repelled the onslaught but right at the death Adare fired an unstoppable shot to the back of the net just before the fulltime whistle sounded. It was a fair result in the end. The future is bright for these young magpies who hurled well all over the field showing their hard work in training is paying off.

Team Patrick Ryan, Aran Ri Ri, Tristan Kirwan, Cian O'Keeffe, Mark Healy, Jack Horgan, Darragh O'Keeffe (0-3), Mark Cussen, Declan O'Grady (3-1), Cormac Noonan, Luke Scanlan, Tiernan Horgan (1-1), Rory Vaughan, Evan Crowley, Leon O'Flynn