Hazelwood College Senior Hurlers reach Munster Final
Hazelwood College : 0-14
Nenagh Vocational : 0-13
It was a close run contest, but Hazelwood College triumphed over Nenagh in Mick Neville Park to reach the Senior ‘B’ Munster Vocational Schools hurling final. Nenagh, the favourites who had narrowly lost the Junior All-Ireland Final two years ago, looked dangerous from the outset scoring a point within seconds of the throw-in from Heffernan, their All-Ireland medal winning Tipp minor. However this was only a prelude to a spell of Hazelwood dominance. After ten minutes the score read 4 points to 1 in favour of Hazelwood who had scored twice through the unerring free-taker Jamie Coughlan and once each from Benji Sheehy and Pa Molyneaux. As Nenagh settled into the game both teams exchanged point for point.Jamie Coughlan again scored twice from frees and Jimmy O Sullivan chipped in from mid-field on the twenty-first minute to put Hazelwood ahead 0-7 to 0-4. This was however our last score in the first half and Nenagh, aided by a wind, put up four unanswered points giving them a one point advantage at the half time whistle.
The second-half was a close run affair and followed a similar pattern to the first with Hazelwood dominating the early exchanges only for Nenagh to rally back. Jamie Coughlan was again on song scoring three more points from placed balls. Ger O Gorman scored the point of the game from well inside his own half, two more points from Benji Sheehy and one from Pat Quaid left us 14 points to 11 up with only five minutes to play. True to the quality of their players and their ‘Never say die’ attitude Nenagh rallied back to leave just one point in it. The relief of the final whistle was just reward for the whos effort and skill from no 1 to 22 cuold not be faulted. Henry O Gorman was outstanding in goal as were the full back line who kept out what had been a goal scoring machine in the previous rounds. The work-rate of the half back line was immense and our forwards lethal given the chance. Hopefully we can carry this form through into the final to be played in Mallow at 12 O Clock on Wednesday January 31st against Clonakilty- The Cork Champions. We would like to take this chance to thank all those involved in the West Limerick U 18 Panel who provided us with a tough challenge the previous weekend. Though they ran out winners on the day this tough challenge was just what we needed.
Team and Scorers:
H O Gorman, G Keane, G O Gorman (0-1), S Fitzgibbon , P O Regan, M Whelan, P Cunningham, J O Sullivan (0-1),T Fleming, S Hehir, B. Sheehy (0-3), P Molyneaux( 0-1), A Butler, P Quaid(0-1) J Coughlan (0-7) (0-6 frees) Subs:S Sheehan, P O Sullivan, E Broderick, E Lowe, N Stokes.