The hurlers enjoyed a good win over Latharna Og at Randalstown on Saturday night in the preliminary round of the Junior B Hurling Championship. We raced into a lead as Canice Mooney quickly found his range as he fired over three points, however the Larne men battled back to level with two of their points coming from frees. Further points were exchanged (Canice Mooney 0-1), before Tommy Toland Mor played the sliotar back to Stephen Toner who dispatched it t0 the back of the net. Anthony Rowntree then got on the score sheet as he struck two quick points and when Rory McEvoy pointed we held a 1-7 to 0-4 half time lead.
Chris Gallagher opened the scoring in the second half, Peter Carleton laid the sliotar off to him and he raced away from the defender and struck the ball between the posts. Canice Mooney added another point before Larne got their first score of the second half with a pointed free. We went up a gear as we fired over five unanswered points from Stephen Toner (0-1), Tommy Toland (Mor) (0-2), Canice Mooney (0-2) and Rory McEvoy (0-1) but Larne reduced the deficit with a goal. We hit back immediately as Stephen Toner fed the ball to Anthony Rowntree who passed it on to Tommy Toland who cracked it to the back of the Larne net.
The final few minutes saw Larne score 1-2 while in response points from Canice Mooney (0-2) and one each for Peter Carleton and Kevin McGrattan saw us deserved victors 2-19 to 2-7. Click here for photos of the game.
This was an excellent team effort and we now progress to meet Belfast Shamrocks in the semi-final on Wednesday 20th August. This will be a tough proposition but we need to keep training going and ensure we are well prepared for this encounter.
