Reporting by Second Year journalists Ben Colgan and Ross Phillips.
Colaiste Choilm began their Senior Hurling campaign with a defeat against a strong Ardscoil Ris of Dublin. Ardscoil Ris have always been a competitive hurling school, progressing to finals in recent times so perhaps Colaiste Choilm should be proud of their display as they scored 1-8 against the robust Ardscoil.
Colaiste Choilm began the game with a point in the opening minutes, but were quickly put into defensive mode, with Ardscoil pressing every puck-out with tireless energy. They got rewards for their energy aswell , scoring 5 points without reply.
Ardscoil kept pressing and pushing looking for that chance for the net to bulge until, Ardscoil won a ruck after one of Adam Martin’s fantastic puck outs, the sliotar broke to the full forward who ran towards Colaiste Choilm’s goal. Everything was looking grim for CC until, Conor Berry produced an outstanding block to save Adam Martins goalmouth. This gave Colaiste a boost before the half time whistle, with Donal Dooley knocking over a 65 before the break. At Half time, the scoreboard showed 0-13 to 0-02 to Ardscoil.
After the break, CC really needed to come out fighting. They brought on Keith O’ Rourke for Cian Lambe and Robert Burns for Sean Dunne. Unfortunately, Ardscoil came powering through in the opening minutes of the half, with another 1-5 going over without reply in the first 5 minutes. Colaiste Choilm never gave up however, with another score from Donal Dooley and the newly-introduced Keith O’ Rourke flying over the crossbar. Conall Minnock was introduced for Cian Kelly just before the 45 minute mark and before long he had his name on the scoresheet aswell.
Everything was looking up for Colaiste with the deficit decreasing every play, but after a few wasted chances, Ardscoil broke through and rattled the net twice in a matter of minutes. This didn't make the boys give up however. Daire Boland powered over a fantastic score from long range, but again Ardscoil were just too strong, racking up another 1-4 without a response. It could have been a fifth goal without the heroics of Adam Martin in net. A late rally from CC came as Keith O’ Rourke put over a point before he rattled the net from long range, but alas it wasn’t enough as Ardscoil Ris powered through with a convincing 4-23 to 1-8 end scoreline.
Star Performers
Adam Martin produced some spectacular saves throughout the game with Jack O’ Donoghue solid in defense all game. Keith O’ Rourke and Conall Minnock were lively when introduced and finally Adam Spollen and Donal Dooley were excellent in the full forward line.
It was unlucky for Colaiste Choilm to come up against such a tough and experienced Ardscoil side, but they can all be proud of their bravery to put in a good shift against the stronger team. Hopefully, they can improve throughout the season and we all have full confidence that they can.
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- Adam Martin
- Sean Finlay
- Conor Berry
- Jack O’ Donoghue
- Daire Boland
- Jason Donoghue
- Cormac Staunton
- Sean Dunne
- Cormac O’ Grady [ C ]
- Cian Lambe
- Patrick Duffy
- Cian Kelly
- Adam Spollen
- Donal Dooley
- James Geraghty
Introduced subs
- John Brady 22. Keith O’ Rourke [Man of Match]
- Killian Dunne 23. Robert Burns
- Conall Minnock 30. Michael Gilligan