St Maurs 54.1 Round Towers 4..0

The St Maurs U/8 Hurlers turned in a terriffic display to defeat Round Towers Clondalkin by a point in a thrilling game played at the home of G.A.A. Games Croke Park.

It was an early for the boys who were meeting at 7.15am for their big day. Suprise suprise all were well tucked early the night before and arrrived in good spirits, with only an odd yawn!! (From an adult)

With the team eagar for action there was no shortage of encouraging words from John Mitchell, Robbie Carthy, Paul Kennedy and Jason Herbert not to mention the vocal support with the Rush boys. The team took the field to a great cheer and found their bearing over the next few minutes. Team photos done it was time for action.

Both teams gave 100% and despite their tender years both sets of players displayed tremendous skill. It was the St Maurs who drew first blood with with Jack Mitchell and Eoghan Duffy combining to set up Peter Groome who struck an unstoppable shot to the Towers net. At the other end Aidan Harford and Tomás Hegarty combined to keep Towers at bay.

Aaron Mc Gee and Calum Herbert then seized on a loose ball and set up Evan Carthy to strike a crisp shot to the Towers net. Towers then got into the game and after a neat move scored a good goal. and but for a timely interception by Senan Monks and Shane Kennedy they could have been level. Then came the score of the game when St. Maurs won a line ball and up stepped Calun Herbert to strike the sideline cut between the posts. With Paul Fynes playing well at mid field thing were looking goood for the Rush biys.

Maurs were hurling well and Finn McEntee and Colin Dennehy were causing havoc with their powerful displays. Callum Herbert at mid field was also in top form and scored an excellent goal . Towers had no answer to his all action style and fearless hurling. Maurs kept up the pressure and were awarded when Callum Herbert added his second goal after been set up by Jack Mitchell. The half time whistle came too soon for Maurs.

The second half was a real battle and Round Towers gave everthing to claw back the deficit and were rewarded when after 6 minutes a deflected shot found its way to the Maurs net. This gave the Clondalkin team a great lift and soon after they added another goal to leave them only 1 point in arrears.

Maurs needed to get moving again and a clearance by Dylan Landy found Callum Herbert who played a long ball into the forwards and after about 10 or 12 jostling for possession the sliother ended up in the Round Towers net. We would need the latest in video technology to see who scored but Maurs didnt mind, the green flag was raised.

With only 3 minutes to go towers were pressing hard and finally got the break they needed to raise the green flag and leave only 1 point between the teams. The final 2 minutes were played at a frantic pace with both sides coming close to scoring. However when the final whistle went it was the young men of St. Maurs in the famed Maroon and Gold who celebrated with a 1 point winning margin.

Great credit to both sets of players who gave a wonderful display of hurling and sportsmanship. This was a hard earned victory for St. Maurs and one the coachs must take great credit for. The players have worked very hard at their hurling and the skill level ahs improved quite a bit over the past 6 months.

The coachs Paul Kennedy, John Mitchell, and Robbie Carthy have done a tremendous job coaching the team and also gave up a huge amount of time every week to ensure all players get to play in every game.

A special word of thanks to Gardá Sean Lennon who gave up his day off work to drive the boys in to Croke Park in the community bus, maybe that extra supporter helped us along!! Thanks to all the parents who had the players in top form and gave them great support.