Hazelwood Hurlers Triumph in Cashel Clash
Hazelwood College 4-14
Cashel Community School 2-9
Hazelwood College’s Under 15 hurlers travelled to Killmallock to face Cashel on 27th February last. Cashel ratcheted up the pressure with a series of early points. After ten minutes, Hazelwood settled into the game, when Anthony Barrett snatched a fine point from range. Hazelwood began to stamp their authority on the game, thanks to the efforts of Hazelwood’s half back line of Ryan O’ Gorman, Gearoid Mathews and Brian Buckley, who closed down Cashel’s forwards.
Scores from Cian Flynn and Jack O’Sullivan saw Hazelwood storm into the lead, reaching a seven point advantage late on in the first half. However, the expected Cashel counterattack provided some eye catching points from tight angles. By half time Cashel managed to cut the Hazelwood’s advantage to a four point lead.
After half time Hazelwood moved Donal Molyneaux in to full forward and Cian Flynn moved out to centre forward. This seemed to breathe new life into the Hazelwood attacker. In the opening minutes of the game, Tim Larkin skilfully lobbed Cashel the keeper after his original effort was not cleared. After this dream start to the second half Hazelwood’s confidence soared.
As he did against Rathkeale, Jack O’ Sullivan showed skill and accuracy both in play and with frees. Hazelwood had a slight injury scare when Donal Molyneaux went down on the twenty one yard line after taking a blow to the back of the head. After some tense minutes he returned to the action and managed to secure some vital scores.
In the last ten minutes of the game, Hazelwood’s fitness proved to be the decisive factor as two late points from Cian Flynn and a last minute goal from Nigel O’Callaghan put the gloss on a solid Hazelwood victory.
