Junior Hurling Champonship (B)
Mon. Aug. 12th 2024
Blackrock 1 – 12 V Passage West 2 – 08.
Report: Roger Ryan
History was made at Ballinlough on Monday evening when our Junior B team beat Passage in the first round of the championship thus emulating similar victories by our Senior, Intermediate and Junior A teams. All four teams recorded great wins in their opening games of the championship and I can't recall this happening before. This surely is testament to the quality and quantity of players we have at our disposal and augurs well for the future of our club.
Our Junior B team had to dig deep to overcome Passage on Monday evening and showed great courage in hanging in there when all seemed lost. Darragh Murphy got us off to a great start with two pointed frees but Passage replied 2 points to draw level. Darragh and Barry Grainger had us ahead again with 1 point each. Passage then scored a goal to lead by 1 point, 0 – 04 to 1 – 02. Barry Grainger levelled matters again with a point but Passage closed out the first half with 2 points to lead at break on a score of 0 – 05 to 1 – 04.
Passage stretched their lead with a point for the opening score of the second half but Vaughan Ryan reduced that lead to the minimum when he scored 2 points on the trot. Passage hit back strongly with a goal and a point and appeared to be heading for the winners enclosure with a tidy lead of 5 points. But our boys weren't done yet. Showing great spirit and determination, they set about reducing the lead. Darragh Murphy pointed a long-range free, Kyle Leahy added a point and suddenly the lead was down to one score, 0 – 09 to 2 – 06. Passage replied with a point, Darragh sent over another free for a point and Passage added a point to leave the board reading Rockies 0 – 10, Passage 2 – 08. In a nail-biting finish our boys took control and following a great goal by Kyle Leahy we found ourselves trailing by a single point. This soon became level pegging when Darragh scored a point and in a welter of excitement, Vaughan Ryan scored a point to put us in the lead. We were now into added time and were pressing hard for further scores when the Ref blew full time with the score at Rockies 1 – 12, Passage 2 – 08. This was a powerful performance by a committed bunch of players who never gave up and really played their hearts out.
Darragh Murphy was excellent in his free-taking and was our top scorer with 6 points. Dan Tyner had a powerful game at centre field and covered an amount of ground while Vaughan Ryan when introduced for the second half, came up trumps with 3 points when we really needed them.
Scorers: Darragh Murphy 0 – 06(05f), Kyle Leahy 1 – 01, Vaughan Ryan 0 – 03, Barry Grainger 0 – 02.
Team: Derek Gosnell, Cillian Buckley, Sean Cormack, Dan Linehan, Kevin Morgan, Connor Coakley, Aenghus Ó Drisceoil, Dan Tyner, Lorcan De Búrca, Conor Sweeney, Kyle Leahy, Joey Boland, Barry Grainger, Eoin Browne, Darragh Murphy.
Subs Used: Vaughan Ryan, Scott O'Sullivan, Eoin O'Meara.
Referee: Mark Maher.
