We progressed to the quarter final stage of the Junior Hurling Championship with an emphatic win over Ardoyne at Milltown on Saturday evening. However, we didn’t start well and it was Ardoyne who opened the scoring with a shot through the crowded defence to the back of the net. It took us a while to settle but an Anton McCaffrey handpass to Sean Prenter saw him fire over the bar to open our account. This was quickly followed by a Martin Mooney point as he took a pass from Peter Carleton before rounding two players and finishing with much finesse. We moved into the lead when Canice Mooney fired a pile driver to the Ardoyne net. The keeper got his stick to the shot but was unable to keep it out.Â
Peter Carleton then fielded the sliotar and drilled in a high ball to Anton McCaffrey on the edge
of the square who blasted to the Ardoyne net to increase our lead. Peter Carleton then got on the score sheet with a point from an acute angle. We were putting the Ardoyne defense under extreme pressure and when Martin Mooney twice blocked an Ardoyne defender he picked up the breaking ball and released it to Anton McCaffrey to score the simplest of points. Good work by Gary Dunlop set up the next score as he too robbed the Ardoyne defender of possession and with pin point accuracy hit the ball to Anton McCaffrey on the twenty one who fired to the net for his second goal of the game. Canice Mooney then added to his goal with two well taken frees before Tommy Toland sent the ball to Sean Prenter to slot between the posts for a point. Ardoyne’s only response during this period was a point leaving the half time score 3-7 to 1-1.
The second half opened with an exchange of points, with our point coming from a Canice Mooney free. Anton McCaffrey added another point to his tally when he dispossessed the Ardoyne full back and fired over a point on his left side. Gary Dunlop then got into the act with a mighty puck from 65 metres to split the posts for his first score.
Ardoyne tried hard and in the 39 minute got in behind our defense. The forward blasted an angled shot towards the top left hand corner of the net only for Davy Gray to execute a stunning save as he pushed the ball round the post for a 65 which resulted in an Ardoyne point.
We then added to our tally with two long range pointed frees from Canice Mooney and an Anto McCaffrey point. With the game coming to an end Ardoyne scored with a pointed free which was cancelled out by the last score of the game a 21 yard free from Canice Mooney.
Check out photos of the game by clicking here.
We now go through to play St Agnes in the quarter final and as usual all players are asked to ensure that they continue to make training in preparation for this game and also our important away league game to Ballela on 30 June.
