Hazelwood Win First Round of Senior Munster Hurling
Hazelwood College 5-13
Nenagh 5 -12
This first round of the Munster Hurling championship was played in Ballybricken last Tuesday, with a strong wind behind Hazelwood who started brightly, with a goal in the third minute by Daire Hannigan. Indeed they blitzed a shell-shocked Nenagh in the opening quarter, scoring 4-5 without reply. The goals came courtesy of Daire Hannigan again, along with David O’Donnell and Diarmuid Buckley. The points, all scored from play, came from the sticks of Diarmuid Coleman, with Diarmuid Buckley and Cian Mulcahy each getting a brace of points. Finally in the 17th minute Neenagh registered a score, pointing from a placed ball and they quickly added another two. Jerry lane landed a 65, which they responded to with a placed ball of their own. Hazelwood finished the half strongly with three points through Cian Mulcahy, Shane Carroll and David O’Donnell. The score at half time, saw Hazelwood leading by 15 points, 4-9 to 0-4, a large lead though Nenagh would have the benefit of the wind in the second half. Unfortunately for Hazelwood the blitz of the first half was repeated except it was Nenagh who were this time piling on the pressure, scoring 2-2 in the opening 5 minutes. Jerry Lane responded with a free for Hazelwood in the 36th minute. This only brought a temporary halt to Nenagh and the onslaught continued, with them scoring a further 1-4 without reply. The score was now Hazelwood 4-10, Nenagh 3-10.Haelwood scored another two frees through Jerry Lane, to lead by 5 points with 15 minutes remaining. Just as Hazelwood looked to be pulling away Neenagh came back with a goal. The game was now going from end to end and Shane Carroll scored a goal for Hazelwood almost straight from the resulting puckout. Nenagh fought back with two points in a row, to leave Hazelwood leading 5-12 to 4-12 with 5 minutes remaining. It was then half back, Philip O’Flynn stepped in with a huge score from half way against the wind. Nenagh were still not finished and attacked the Hazelwood goal repeatedly in the last 5 minutes, winning and goaling a 21 yard free in the last minute. Neenagh had a chance to draw it, 2 minutes into injury time, they won a free in their own half back line but missed and so Hazelwood survived by a point 5-13 to 5-12
Team and scorers:
C. Egan, S. Flanagan, J. Casey, C. Dillon, P. O’ Flynn (0-1), E O’ Connor, D. Boyce, D. Coleman (0-1), J. Butler, J. Lane (0-5 all frees), C. Mulcathy (0-3), D. Hannagin (2-0), D O’ Donnell (1-1), S. Carroll (1-1), D. Buckley (1-1), E. McMahon, D. Lacey, C. Cagney, S. Fehin, E. Shanahan, P. Mulcathy, J. Kelly, P. Burke, D. Stack, S. Duggan, P. Stack, S. Brosnan.
