De La Salle 1-22 Thurles CBS 2-18
Report by Ed Donnelly
The recently refurbished Walsh Park Waterford was the ideal setting for the opening round of the TUS Dean Ryan Cup Under 17 A Hurling competition on a bright and windy Wednesday afternoon.
There was a fine crowd in attendance for what turned out to be an exciting game of hurling which was in doubt up to the final whistle.
The opening exchanges were dominated by De La Salle as Jamie Shanahan scored the first three points (2 from play) to help the Waterford side lead by 0-3 to 0-1 after 5 minutes. Soon afterwards, the first goal of the game arrived courtesy of Zach O’Keeffe for Thurles CBS to put them in front. O’Keeffe would see another good goal chance saved by the De La Salle keeper James Comerford in the 8th minute, but O’Keeffe would not be denied his second goal which arrived in the 15th minute after his excellent first touch made space for the goal bound shot. Further Thurles points from Jack Cahill (free) and Danny Barry saw the Tipperary school lead by 2-5 to 0-5.
De La Salle reacted to O’Keeffe’s goal threat by moving full-back Darragh Jeane over on him and the Thurles corner-forward would not score again. De La Salle reduced the deficit with quick-fire points by Shanahan and Shane Power before Darragh Doyle found the Thurles net after a good move to reduce the deficit to a point, 1-7 to 2-5.
Thurles would dominate the remainder of the half and extended their lead to four points on three occasions but with the last stroke of the first half, Shanahan pointed a free to leave the half-time score – 2-11 to 1-11.
The opening stages of the second half saw De La Salle come out of the blocks with greater urgency as they scored four unanswered points from Jack Power, Shanahan and Shane Power (2) to take the lead – 1-15 to 2-11. Thurles would respond with two pointed frees by Eoin Webb to regain the lead before the major turning point of the game.
Tipperary’s All-Ireland Minor winning player Euan Murray, who was beginning to dominate possession from the centre-half-back position, committed a high tackle on Cian O’Sullivan and having been shown a yellow card in the first half, the man in the middle had little choice but to show the Murray a second yellow card and ultimately a red card. When Shanahan pointed the resultant free, the sides were level and a De La Salle victory looked likely.
To their credit, Thurles upped their work-rate to compensate for De La Salle’s extra man to provide a ding-dong tussle in the final quarter. The sides were level on four occasions during those last few minutes as both teams looked to record a Quarter-Final place. De La Salle would take the lead for good in the 56th minute when Shanahan pointed a free and he repeated the trick two minutes later to give the Waterford school a two point lead.
Thurles would respond with a Jack Cahill pointed free in injury time but despite four minutes of additional time being played, Thurles could not engineer an equalizer and De La Salle ran out winners by a solitary point. De La Salle now go forward to play St. Flannans Ennis in the Quarter-Final in two weeks’ time.
De La Salle: James Comerford (Ballygunner); Darragh Hearne (Roanmore), Darragh Jeane (De La Salle), Andrew Power (Ballygunner); Eddie O’Reilly (Ballygunner, 0-1), Conor Power (De La Salle), Richard Crowley (Ballygunner); Shane Power (De La Salle, 0-6, 0-4 frees), Eoin Burke (Roanmore, 0-1); Cian O’Sullivan (Ballygunner), Jamie Shanahan (Erins Own, 0-12, 0-10 frees), Jack Power (Ballygunner, 0-1); Darragh Doyle (De La Salle, 1-0), Darragh Hickey (Ballygunner), Jack Walsh (Mount Sion, 0-1)
Subs: Conor Sherlock (Ballygunner) for Cian O’Sullivan (blood – 39m to 45m), Mickey Moloney (Ballygunner) for Jack Walsh (53m), Conor Sherlock for Darragh Doyle (56m)
Thurles CBS: Rory Crosse (Boherlahan-Dualla); Andy Rossiter (Durlas Óg), Conor Kennedy (Boherlahan-Dualla), Conor Kennedy (Clonoulty-Rossmore); Darragh Hickey (Emeralds, 0-1), Euan Murray (Durlas Óg), Eoin Kennedy (Boherlahan-Dualla); Kieran Rossiter (Durlas Óg, 0-1), Eoghan Hickey (Holycross-Ballycahill, 0-1); Jack Cahill (Ballingarry, 0-5, 0-4 frees), Darragh Doyle (Killenaule), Sean Griffin (Upperchurch-Drombane); Zach O’Keeffe (Holycross-Ballycahill, 2-0), Danny Barry (Fethard, 0-2), Eoin Webb (Durlas Óg, 0-8, 0-6 frees)
Sub: Darragh O’Dwyer (Durlas Óg) for Webb (52m)
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