U21 ‘B’ HC Quarter-final – Kilara Óg 4-10 Kildorrery 2-22 on Tuesday August 27^th 2019 in Ballygiblin.

Our U21s returned to championship action on Tuesday night when they travelled to Ballygiblin to take on Kildorrery in the quarter-final of this year’s championship. Kilara Óg had a slow start to the game with the opposition leading 0-4 to 0-1 after just six minutes. We had a lot of the possession but with a tendency to over play the ball, we failed to convert our possession into scores. That was until the 9^th minute when Johnny Tobin Allen got on the end of a high ball lobbed in by Jamie Sheehan to level the game at 1-1 to 0-4. Kildorrery responded well to the goal and they quickly cancelled it out as their full forward continued to cause issue for our backs. We saw two balls go wide before Jamie Sheehan won the puck out and struck a great ball into Leo Coffey who took on his marker to fire the ball past the keeper, into the bottom corner of the net and suddenly we were back level again, 2-1 to 0-7. Two frees from Eoin Carey followed by a point from Michael Sheehan put us ahead for the first time in the game and with ten minutes to go until the break, we led 2-4 to 0-7. Kildorrery were awarded a free which they put over before they were awarded another close range free just two minutes later. They decided to go for goal but they ball was brilliantly stopped on the line and quickly cleared out field to Eoin Carey who got his fourth point of the game for Kilara Óg. Eoin tagged on another a minute later to put us four clear with three minutes of normal time remaining before half time. The opposition grabbed one back but after a slow start we were delighted to go in a half time with a three point lead, 2-6 to 0-9.

The rain continued to pour down during the second half and Kilara had another slow start similar to the first half, conceding 1-4 within eight minutes. This put Kildorrery 1-13 to 2-6, a four point cushion. It didn’t take long for our lads to respond however as we levelled the game just two minutes later when Michael Sheehan passed a great ball into Leo Coffey who went on to score his second goal of the game. This came after another pointed free from Eoin Carey. The sides were now level at 1-13 to 3-7. Leo completed his hat-trick less than a minute later when he put another goal past the Kildorrery keeper to put us three points clear in the 42^nd minute. Again, we left the opposition back into the game and some poor defending led to their second goal in the 47^th minute and this put them a point clear, 2-15 to 4-8. There was now no way back for Kilara Óg and although our lads gave it their all, Kildorrery were winning almost all of the puck outs and very little ball was getting into our full forward line. In the end we lost out by six points on the final score line of 4-10 to 2-22 and it’s Kildorrery who progress to the semi-final. We wish them all the best for the remainder of the championship. Well done to the Kilara Óg hurlers and management on all of your hard work and effort this year and we’re sure you’ll be back to give the championship another crack next year!

Team and Scorers: Brian Casey, Ben Carey, Oisín Hickey (0-1), PJ Aherne, Mikey Gowen, Jeremy Saich, Paul Hynes, Seán Hegarty, Eoin Carey (0-8), Diarmuid Allen, Johnny Tobin Allen (1-0), Jack Kearney, Michael Sheehan (0-1), Jamie Sheehan (0-1) and Leo Coffey (3-0).