Moycarkey Borris finally outlast Upperchurch Drombane to claim Mid U17B Hurling title

Mid U17B Hurling Championship Final Replay

Moycarkey Borris 1-24

Upperchurch Drombane 2-16

AET

It took no less than 160 minutes of hurling to separate these two teams but Moycarkey Borris finally won out in extra time against a valiant Upperchurch Drombane in this Mid U17B Hurling Championship Final played in atrocious downpours underlights in Templemore last Wednesday night.

The slick underfoot conditions and constant driving rain all night made this game a far more attritional contest than the drawn final played the previous Sunday, but the players managed to serve up another thrilling contest and it just goes to show how evenly matched the teams are that they took this long to be separated.

In the end though, Moycarkey Borris outlasted their opponents in extra time and despite a Richard Ryan goal in the first half of the extra period, they scored 1-7 to Upperchurch’s one point in what was a strong finish from the men in red as they eventually got their hands on the Mid trophy just after 10 o’clock!

Upperchurch will be sickened at having come so close to the title and even more so, the fact that they started extra time so well with that aforementioned Ryan goal, they could have easily beefed out their lead to six when Philip O’Dwyer had a terrific chance to goal just a minute after but his tame shot was saved well by Darragh Peterson in the Moycarkey goal, as the trio of Jack Hayes, Killian Cantwell, and David Costigan led the way and accounted for a massive 0-20 of their teams total between them

The ‘Church started the game so well and had their tails up from the throw-in as they won the possession and link up between Rian Treacy and Sean Griffin eventually led to them playing in Huey Purcell on goal and the corner forward rattled the net; that goal coming inside 20 seconds to give them the perfect start.

The slushy conditions made life hard for the players and, as such, the frees flowed freely as the players couldn’t hold themselves up in contact and led to numerous frees throughout the game as Richard Ryan again hit his placed balls expertly and two of those along with points from Rian Treacy and Sean Shanahan had the ‘Church ahead 1-4 to 0-2 after 12 minutes.

Moycarkey settled into their rhythm soon after though as Jack Hayes, David Costigan, and Killian Cantwell all found the target in a ten minute period where they scored five points in a row to take the lead, but another Ryan free for Upperchurch in the 24th minute had the sides level yet again and you just felt that this was going to be another nail biter for the supporters of both clubs.

However, there was separation by half time as Moycarkey took the lead at the break with Jack Hayes on song with three fine efforts along with another from David Costigan, and they really should have been further ahead only for some poor shooting, but they did take a two-point advantage into the half time break.

Like the first half, Upperchurch started strongly again and three Ryan frees in a row saw them hit the front again as they soon extended it out to two points with Rian Treacy bagging his second of the day with a fine strike in the 47th minute, as Moycarkey’s shooting was proving detrimental to their efforts as they registered only two points in the first 15 minutes of the half.

But as has been the case over the course of the two games, Moycarkey found a heavy-scoring purple patch and hit five points on the bounce again between the 48th and 54th minute thanks to the trio of Hayes, Costigan, and Cantwell to put the three to the good with five minutes to go.

Upperchurch had come from the brink on more than one occasion thus far in these fixtures and did so once again in the final six or seven minutes including injury time, and manufactured three frees over the course of that time for the laser-accurate Richard Ryan to convert and send the final to extra time yet again as the sides finished normal time at 1-14 to 0-17.

As usual, Upperchurch were quick out of the blocks at the start of added time and some clever link up play with stick passes finally sent Huey Purcell in around the back of the Moycarkey defence and he went on to draw the last defender and hand pass to Richard Ryan who had the simple task of blasting past Peterson in the Moycarkey goal to put them three in front early doors.

That lead could have been extended further a minute later when Philip O’Dwyer eased past his marker inside the 21 and despite taking a heavy challenge got in on goal again, but his effort was a good height for Darragh Peterson to beat the effort clear and let the Moycarkey defence off the hook.

Moycarkey were jolted into life from that though and from here, they didn’t look back and took control of the fixture for the remainder of extra time and Tom Ryan’s goal in the fifth minute of the first half had them back in front along with scores from Costigan and Cantwell to put them in the ascendancy.

And from there the Upperchurch challenge finally faltered as Moycarkey tidied up their shooting to land the final three points of the game as they finally overcame a very impressive Upperchurch team who left everything on the pitches of The Ragg and Templemore over the two days of hurling.

Moycarkey Borris: Darragh Peterson; Daniel Butler, Louis Coughlan, Daniel Hayes; Eamon Ryan, Killian Cantwell (0-6, 0-4f), Richie Maher; David Costigan (0-6), Cillian Doran; John Fitzgerald (0-2), Sean O’Dwyer (0-1), Rory Heffernan; Conor Doherty, Jack Hayes (0-8, 0-5f), Tom Ryan (1-1).

Subs used: Conor Donnelly for Doherty (41); Sean Maher for Heffernan (54); Reuben Power for O’Dwyer (76, ET).

Upperchurch Drombane: Padraig Griffin; Conor Brett, Michael Quinlan, Paddy Ryan; Rian Treacy (0-2), Toby Corbett, David Griffin; Philip O’Dwyer, Sean Griffin; Killian Houlihan, Sean Shanahan (0-1), Tomas Ryan; Huey Purcell (1-0), Richard Ryan (1-13, 0-13f), Paddy Quinlan.

Subs used: Liam Ryan (L) for Houlihan (41); Paidi Harty for Quinlan (47).

Referee: Seamus Delaney (JK Brackens)