The U13 team 1 took on second in the table Thomas Davis in the division 2 league on Saturday September 24^th in Pairc Ui Bhriain.

Olaf’s raced into a well-deserved 4 point lead after 10 minutes with points from Glenn Soraghan, Sean Flynn, Sean McDaid and Eoin Foley.  Thomas Davis didn’t panic and kept plugging away and their persistence was rewarded when they scored 1-5 without reply.  Eoin Foley scored another point and 2 points from Joseph Raferty kept Olaf’s in touch. Davis finished the half stronger and closed off the half by scoring another 3 points to leave the half time score at Olaf’s 0-7 Thomas Davis 1-8.  Olaf’s kicked 6 wide’s in the first half and had these gone over, they could have gone into the break leading by 2 points rather than trailing by 4. 

The second half started at a blistering pace and on Olaf’s first attack Glenn Soraghan cut through the Davis back line to score an incredible goal.  This was followed shortly by an unbelievable point from Joseph Raferty.  Joseph was close to the side-line and about 40 meters out from the Davis goal when he caught the ball above 2 Davis players. With these 2 players tacking him and a third defender in close pursuit, he kicked the ball over the bar to bring the game level.  Davis knew they had a battle on their hands and they dug in and scored a couple of goals to give them some breathing room.  With 15 minutes to go, team manager Cathal Soraghan made an inspired substation by introducing Alex Start.  Eoin Foley kicked in a long free and Alex jumped above everybody, got his fist to the ball and scored a goal with his first touch.  On their next few attacks, Davis tacked on some more scored to see them 9 points clear with 7 minutes to go.  Olaf’s never gave up and their doggedness paid off when Eoin Foley and Tom Keane put a lovely move together with saw Eoin smash the ball to the Davis net.  Points followed quickly from David Breathnach and Cian DeBurca to bring the deficit to 4 points. Unfortunately time caught up and Davis held on to win.

This was a great team performance by Olaf’s. Jack Dalton had a solid game in goals.  Jamie Deiseach and Tom McGurk played very well as did Conor Kirwan who made some vital blocks during the game. Fiachra O’Sullivan, Matthew Deering and Rory Gallagher had their hands full with the Davis half-forwards but they never gave up.  Eoin Foley had his usual great game and while his mid-field partner Tom Keane didn’t get on the score sheet (this is the first game this year that Tom hasn’t scored), he covered an incredible amount of ground and set up a lot of scores.  Glenn Soraghan finished the game with 1-3 and Joseph Raferty proved to be a handful for the Davis back line and ended up scoring 4 points. Sean McDaid contributed a point and played very well throughout as did Conor Brady, Sean Flynn and Matthew Kelly.  Cian DeBurca, Alex Start and David Breathnach all scored when introduced and will cause headaches for Cathal Soraghan and Stephen Stapleton when they sit down to select the team for the next game against Lucan Sarsfields. 

Well done to referee Michelle O’Hurley for her handling of the game. The game passed without any incidents thanks to Michelle's competent refereeing.

Team 2 finished their division 8 campaign with a great 2-12 to 1-6 win over Raheny.  This win sees the team finishing in joint second place with Whitehall Colmcille.  This is a marvellous achievement for the team. The final table is as follows: