The U12 hurling team 2 travelled to play Erins Isle in round 5 of the Cup competition on Saturday May 1^st.  The rules of the competition state that we must have a minimum of 11 players for a game. As it was a Bank Holiday weekend, and some players were away, we struggled to meet this number.  On Friday night, we had 12 confirmed players. However, on Saturday morning, 2 players withdrew due to injury which left us with just 10 players. This meant we would have to forfeit the game if we couldn’t find the eleventh player. Stephanie Deasy heard of our plight and offered her services to the team so off we set for Finglas with 11 players in tow.

The game started at a frenzied pace with both teams battling to put their stamp on the game.  Our midfielders of Conor Brady and Chloe O’Ceallaigh started to get on top with Conor in particular showing exceptional blocking and hand-passing skills throughout the game.  The team’s top scorer to date, Eric Stapleton, opened the scoring with a great goal.  This was followed quickly by a goal from Tristin Kennedy and a point from Conor Brady.  Isles got a goal just before the break to leave the half time score at Olaf’s 2-1 Erins Isle 1-0.

The second half started with Isles continuing to put our lads under pressure. Goalkeeper Fiachra O’Sullivan and the backs of Ryan Murphy, Stephanie Deasy, James Keogh and Conor Kirwan worked tirelessly to keep them at bay and their perseverance paid off.  A huge clearance up the field from Stephanie Deasy found Matthew O’Ceallaigh who got past 3 Isles players and finished the ball to the net.  This was the start of a “purple patch” for Olaf’s with Matthew scoring another 3 goals.  Conor Brady tagged on another goal while Daniel Stapleton finished off the scoring blitz with a rocket to the top corner of the net giving the Isles keep no chance.  Chloe O’Ceallaigh completed the scoring with a marvellous point from a 65.  Isles scored 1-1 in the last few minutes to leave the final score at Olaf’s 8-2 Erins Isle 2-1.

It was a great all round team performance, but everybody present agreed that Conor Brady turned in a magnificent performance and was the worthy winner of the Man of the Match award.  Well done Conor!  Another positive to take from the game was that all forwards got on the score sheet so it proves that the effort that the players are putting in at training is starting to pay dividends.  The win secures 2^nd place for the team and guarantees them a place in the semi-final where it looks like they’ll be taking on Na Fianna (currently on top of group B).

The team on Saturday was: Fiachra O’Sullivan, Ryan Murphy (Captain), Stephanie Deasy, James Keogh, Conor Kirwan, Chloe O’Ceallaigh, Conor Brady, Eric Stapleton, Matthew O’Ceallaigh, Tristin Kennedy and Daniel Stapleton.

Team1 played Whitehall Colmcille and they turned in a marvellous second half display to win by 7-1 to 2-2.  This win guarantees the team at least a play-off for 2^nd place in their group.  Overall it was a very satisfactory day for the U-12 hurling squad. 

Well done also to the U14 footballers who won the division 4 football Feile competition over the weekend!!