Junior A Hurling: Barley House Wolves v Offaly

Offaly 2-21 Barley House Wolves 0-5

The junior A hurling championship opened with Offaly and Barley House Wolves meeting on a pleasantly breezy afternoon at the ICC.  It was a first outing for Offaly who will likely prove to be a strong junior A side this year and for the all American side, Barley House Wolves, it was a step up as the New Hampshire based team competes at junior B in the North American competition.  It was pretty much all Offaly and as the game wore on and Offaly found their touch the scores became more frequent.  Barley House Wolves battled throughout the game and will have had some valuable match competition under their belts.

The Boston Offaly club just before their first outing.

The first half was pretty much all Offaly.  With seasoned hurlers such as Andy McRedmond manning the center back position and Stephen Brown at corner forward, Offaly had the tools to cause considerable damage.  Tommy Rigney at wing back featured prominently, as did James Kilmartin at wing forward.  Early in the half Brown put three impressive points over the bar from a tight angle near the big stand, and the wily Mickey Markham chipped in with a couple of well taken scores.  Offaly goalkeeper, Gary Sherlock was called into action to gather a dropping ball and did well to clear, and shortly afterwards his counterpart, John Mullen saved well from a Brown shot at goal. 

The Wolves worked at it with Steve Desjarlais  and Michael Gregoire toiling in the half back line, while Pat Naughton and his forwards tried to make the most of the supply that came their way.  Eventually the efforts of the Concord NH side were rewarded with a point from Sean Naughton.  The scores continued to flow for Offaly as their shooting continued to sharpen as the half wore on.  At the break it was an unassailable 16 points to one lead for the Faithful county.

In the second half Offaly added a couple of goals to the tally, Lyndon Kiley and Brown the scorers.  A great start to their maiden season for Offaly.  Points from Sam Durfee and Pat Naughton added to the tally for the Barley House Wolves, and provided some encouragement that the New Hampshire boys eventually started to find the mark.  Galway will provide the opposition for both teams in their next outings of the season.   

Offaly:  G. Sherlock, J. Murray, A. Bergian, C. McDermott, A. McRedmond, T. Rigney, C. Mahon, R. Reynolds, L. Kiley, M. Markham, S. Brown, C. Flynn.  BHW:  J. Mullen, N. Always, A. Foley, J. Abramowitz, M. Gregoire, S. Desjarlais, S. Naughton, R. Nickerson, M. Mazorski, P. Naughton, S. Durfee, S. Emerton, M. Wilson.

By Rory O'Donnell