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| The Junior A Hurling Championship Stayed in the Northeast with Fr. Tom's. |
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| New Hampsire's Barley House Wolves Brought the North American Trophy Back to the Granite State. |
On Day one, Friday,
of the NACB finals at Pennypack Park in Philadelphia conditions were warm and
the fields were in good shape. There
were 6 teams from the Northeast division in action and five came through their
early round games.
Fr. Tom’s junior hurlers defeated Vancouver comfortably with
some good performances from Tadgh O’Huallachain, James Dooley, Kevin Mooney,
and James McGrath and ran out 2-28 to 2-7 winners.
The Cork junior footballers had to work a bit harder in
their quarter final against Atlanta.
Holding a comfortable lead at the break, Cork fell behind and with 6
minutes left trailed by a point. Lar
Barden and Paddy Ryan swung the game with a goal each and the rebels ended up 7
point winners.
Donegal took extra time to beat Young Irelands Philadelphia
in the junior A competition, a trophy that has proven to be very hard for a
Northeast team to win. Donegal will meet
Padraig Pearses from Chicago tomorrow.
The Shannon Blues also played the host team, St. Patricks, in the senior
quarter finals and came through to meet Vancouver in tomorrow’s semi-final.
The junior C hurlers had a mixed bag. The Barley House Wolves played two games and
came through both with a bit to spare.
First against Denver and then a Southeast team that entered the
competition. BHW will face St. Louis tomorrow,
the team that pipped them in last year’s final.
Portland went down to Indianapolis and will enter the shield
competition.
Saturday did not
get off to the best of starts from a Boston standpoint. The Cork junior B’s went down to a young,
fresh Baltimore side. The game was level
at half time but Baltimore put three points on the trot over the bar in the
second half to take control of the game.
Trailing by five points with five minutes left Cork pulled back a goal
and had a chance to goal again but missed.
Baltimore made sure of it with a minute left with a goal of their
own. The Donegal junior A footballers
went down to Padraig Pearses from Chicago by a score of 2-6 to 2-9.
On the plus side, Shannon Blues senior footballers made the
senior football final by defeating Vancouver by a point in a dour affair. Though the Blues got off to a great start
thanks to a Caolan Rafferty goal, the Blues trailed for most of the game and
came through in injury time. Kieran
Hurley was also sent off 5 minutes into the second half, and the Blues trailed
by a score of 1-5 to 1-7 coming into injury time, but three points on the trot
saw the Boston champions through. A
better performance would be required in Sunday’s final against Ulster San
Francisco. On the junior hurling front,
The Barley House Wolves made short work of St. Louis in their semi-final and
move on to another NACB final where Allentown stood between the New Hampshire
boys in their quest for the cup. Fr.
Tom’s beat the Celtic Cowboys from Austin Texas to make the junior A final
where they would play Toronto. The
Texans had been promoted from junior B but Tom’s were a bit too much for them
to handle. Michael Markham came off the
bench to net a hat trick, and American Boron Mick Lawrence got his first score
for Tom’s with a point.
The senior hurling final was played on Saturday at the
request of Na Fianna, and the westerners won their second North American title
in a row at the expense of a team from the Northeast. Wexford traveled to Philadelphia just short
of a few who had won the championship in Boston last weekend, but hoped for a
NACB cup to go with the Boston trophy.
Trailing at the break by a score of 2-11 to 1-5, Wexford put in a
tremendous performance to stage a comeback from a massive 15 point deficit in
the second half. In goal for Na Fianna
was Waterford reserve keeper, who stopped three or four goal bound shots at the
death as Wexford tried to pull off the impossible, but it was not to be. The Slaneysiders fell short by four points, Final
Score Wexford 5-10 Na Fianna 4-17. Eire
Og entered a team into the camogie competition but also came to end of the road
on Saturday.
Fr. Tom Burke’s win the junior championship with a fine
display against a tough Toronto team in the final. While the scoreline of 5-16 to 3-5 might
indicate a one sided affair, that was not the case. Tom’s led by 1-10 to 1-3 at the break, but
shortly after the second half started Toronto fired in a goal and a point. Tom’s went scoreless for 10 minutes, but came
good towards the end. Michael Markham
and John Cuddy each netted, and Tom’s got some crucial scores from Cormac
Joyce-Power down the stretch. Fran
Keenan made no mistakes in goal and the puckouts were excellent. The back line was solid with a fine display from
Dylan Costello, along with Tom Corcoran, Kevin Mooney and James Dooley. Barry Smith put in an excellent 60 minutes in
the middle of the field, while David Hession did a lot of damage in the forward
line.
The junior C hurling cup also went to the Northeast as
Concord New Hampshire’s Barley House Wolves defeated Allentown in a nail biting
final. With the game tied at 0-8 to 1-5
at the break the Wolves got their noses ahead.
Driven on by Mattie Pulomina and with Rory O’Mahoney on target several
times, the Wolves got into a three-point lead.
It took a great save from Denis Treanor in goal to maintain it, and the
back line were put on their heels several times by Allentown’s speedy
forwards. Unlike last year, when the
Wolves were turned by a goal in the final minutes, the New Hampshire-ites were
determined not to let it happen again and held out until the final
whistle. A first North American for the
Wolves and a very satisfying win in their sixth year of existence.
The senior trophies eluded the Northeast this year as
Connacht Ladies fell to the hosts, Notre Dames of Philly. At the break the Boston champions had it all
to do as Notre Dames led by a score of 0-8 to 0-2. The back line had their work cut out for them
as the local girls piled on the pressure.
Eventually it told as Notre Dames banged home three goals to win by a
score of 3-12 to 0-8, and the Ladies Senior Football Championship remains in
Philadelphia.
Shannon Blues senior footballers also had a tough run. Having come through their rousing extra time
Boston victory one week ago, the Blues made the final having played on Friday
and Saturday. The Blues, playing their
fourth game in 8 days, were up against a strong Ulster side from San Francisco. The Boston representatives also went into the
game without key men Kieran Hurley who had been red carded in Saturday’s
semi-final and Sean Moriarty who shipped an injury and could not play, leaving
the team with 7 players who started last week’s final in Boston. The Blues fought hard and had a few chances
at goal that slipped by, but Ulster just about deserved to come out on top by a
goal. Two cups to Boston, maybe there
will be one or two more coming back from Cleveland next year.
Thanks to all the reporters on the ground in Philly for
helping get this together! Gerry,
Jamesie, Christina, David, Lore, Rob, Noel, and Laura.
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