The U-12 hurling team 2 started their Cup campaign on Saturday last, February 27^th, with a trip to St. David’s CBS Artane where they played Parnell’s in the first game in the Cup competition.  This panel have been training since the middle of January and all of effort they have put in since then showed with the excellent performance they turned in.  Each player was up for the game and battled for every ball that came their way.  Goalkeeper Fiachra O’Sullivan had an excellent game and made some excellent saves.  The backs of Conor Kirwan, Evan Cahill, Oscar Bent, Declan Murphy and Neil O’Mahony all played very well. After taking a knock to his hand, Evan returned to the pitch and broke up the field to score our first goal.  Oscar contributed added a magnificent point from his half back position. 

The midfield pairing of Sean O’Brien and David Pollard never gave up and contested every ball. David contributed 3 magnificent points to keep us in touch.  Sean took a knock at the start of the second half and showed admirable courage by coming back on and really upped his performance for the cause.  The forwards of Matthew Deering, Jack Dalton, Daniel Stapleton, Cian DeBurca, Eric Stapleton and Richard Shiel all played excellently with Jack Dalton contributing 1-1 and Eric Stapleton contributing a goal. With 5 minutes to go, 2 goals separated the teams when up stepped Richard Sheil. Richard struck a bullet of a shot from the left wing which didn’t give the Parnell’s keeper any chance of stopping it.  That left a goal between the teams and for the remainder of the game Olaf’s were continually on the attack.  Unfortunately they were unable to get that last crucial goal and Parnell’s ran out winners on a score-line of Parnell’s 5-5 Olaf’s 4-5.  Cian DeBurca was voted “Man of the Match” for his tireless harrying and tackling of the Parnell’s defenders and can be credited with setting up most of the Olaf’s scores.  Well done Cian!!

This team can look forward with confidence to their next outing on Saturday March 13^th.  The panel on Saturday was: Fiachra O’Sullivan, Conor Kirwan, Evan Cahill (1-0), Oscar Bent (0-1), Declan Murphy, Neil O’Mahony, Sean O’Brien, David Pollard (0-3), Matthew Deering, Jack Dalton (1-1), Daniel Stapleton, Cian DeBurca, Eric Stapleton (1-0), Richard Sheil (1-0)