The senior hurlers had their first win in the All-Ireland Junior B hurling series with a quarter final Leinster win over the Kildare champions Eire Og (Corra Choill) at Heywood college on Sunday.
We started well and created a few early scoring opportunities but failure to convert them into scores saw us punished by Eire Og as they established a three point lead. However, a Chris Gallagher free got us on the scoreboard and when Alan Rainey launched a pass from defense, Stephen Toner controlled the sliotar, side stepped his man and struck it between the posts. Both teams then traded point for point with Chris Gallagher adding 3 pointed frees to see us trail 0-5 to 0-6. The defining moment of the first half came in the 28th minute, the sliotar was played out of the back line, Rory McEvoy picked up possession and swiftly hand-passed the sliotar to Stephen McGivern who raced on goal and smashed it to the back of the net. Another Chris Gallagher free saw us lead at the break 1-6 to 0-6.
We got the perfect start to the second half when Chris Gallagher played a high ball into the Eire Og square, it somehow deceived their goalkeeper and it ended up in the net to increase our lead to six. Eire Og responded with a pointed free. We followed up with another well executed goal, good work from Rory McEvoy and Canice Mooney saw the sliotar reach Gary Nelson who dispatched an unstoppable shot to the net. We tagged on further points from Chris Gallagher (0-2) and Stephen McGivern to ease into a comfortable lead. Another Eire Og pointed free was followed by our fourth goal of the game. Thomas Toland played a pass to Stephen McGivern who fed the sliotar to Martin Tully who had stormed forward from the half back line to the edge of the square and he struck a fierce shot past the keeper. Eire Og registered the final point of the game and at the whistle we had recorded a 4-9 to 0-9 win to progress to the semi-final stages.
Our opponents in the semi-final are the Kilkenny champions John Lockes, who had a two point win in their quarter final match.
Click here to check out photos of the game.
