U16 Hurling Ballyvarley v
Warrenpoint
U-16 Hurling
Ballyvarley v Warrenpoint
Ballyvarley
entertained Warrenpoint in the U-16
Hurling League and in a free-scoring
game the Reds continued their good
form and coasted home to a
convincing 8 point victory. Both
sides played with merry abandon as
play flowed freely from one end to
the other and in an entertaining
game of skilful hurling the tally of
near misses probably outnumbered the
26 scores on the scoreboard.
Warrenpoint opened the
score with a fine point from
Mathhew
Teague but it was the home side that
dominated the opening half although
their shooting radar was not in
perfect working condition and they
blasted an embarrassing number of
wides
when well placed for easy scores.
Eventually the scores came from
difficult angles with
Conor
McClorey
grabbing two and Sean Savage and
Paul O’Neill weighing in with one
apiece. The normally prolific Paul
O’Neill was struggling to hit the
target from placed balls and his
second point in the fifteenth minute
was to prove his only point from a
free in the entire game. Ballyvarley
dominance continued but four
consecutive points from Warrenpoint
levelled the scoring and sent the
alarm bells ringing on the home
bench and that’s when the goal
avalanche happened. Paul O’Neill’s
frustration was finally lifted when
he slammed home goal number one and
almost immediately
Conor
McClorey
raced through for goal number two.
Within minutes
McClorey was racing through
again and his pass across the box
was flicked into the roof of the net
by the vigilant Patrick
Mackin
for the third goal.
Conor
McClorey
was in the middle of a purple patch
and once more he gathered the ball
on the right and sent an angled shot
over the crossbar for his third
point of the game. Two more Matthew
Teague points kept Warrenpoint in
touch before O’Neill soloed through
to slam goal number four past a
bewildered keeper to give the Reds a
deserved 11 point half time lead.
Half-time:
Ballyvarley 4-6
Warrenpoint 0-7
The
second half was much more evenly
contested as Warrenpoint resorted to
carrying the ball at the Reds
defence and this change in tactics
almost turned the tide and James
McDermott, Jamie Murray and Paul
Cairns had to be at their very best
to cope with the onslaught. A
Warrenpoint goal after five minutes
lifted their spirits and the game
quickly developed into an end to end
contest with both sides blazing wide
from chances they had created. Tony
Hegarty
crashed home Ballyvarley’s fifth
goal to restore their eleven point
advantage but a goal and a point
from the visitors narrowed the gap
to seven. O’Neill fired over for the
Reds before two more Warrenpoint
points brought the gap down to a
manageable six points and once more
the home nerves were jangling.
However the Reds rose to the
challenge and they finished the
stronger side with O’Neill and
McClorey
firing over two further points to
put the issue beyond doubt.
Final
score: Ballyvarley 5-9
Warrenpoint 2-10
Ballyvarley Team
James
Kennedy ; Paul Cairns, James
McDermott, Martin Connolly; Michael
McDermott, Jamie Murray, Christopher
Martin; Conor
McClorey(1-4),
Leigh
McConville; Patrick
Mackin(1-0),
Paul O’Neill (2-4), Shane
McAreavey;
Tony Hegarty(1-0),
Sean Savage(0-1).
Subs:
Ryan McGrath, Michael McAllister
