Sun, 8th December 2024
Picture Courtesy John Kirwan
Lucan Sarsfields claimed the Go-Ahead Ireland Dublin Under 21 ‘A’ Hurling Championship title when getting the better of Faughs by 3-10 to 1-8 at a blustery O’Toole Park on Saturday afternoon.
The adverse weather conditions spoiled the encounter to a large degree in terms of fluent hurling and while the final scoreline was a touch flattering, there was no doubting the merit of Lucan’s victory by the final whistle.
Sarsfields started on the back foot however, conceding a penalty within three minutes that James O’Brien converted to hand Faughs the early initiative.
A brace of Seán Harkness frees allowed Lucan to settle into the final with O’Brien and Harkness trading scores as Faughs enjoyed a marginal one-point advantage by the end of the first quarter.
The lively Eoghan Brennan doubled Faughs’ lead in the 17th minute but that proved a short-lived source of optimism as an excellent three-man move from Lucan culminated in Darragh Meehan rifling the ball into the top corner from 20 yards.
Further scores by David Mulqueen and Harkess sandwiched a score at the opposite end of the field by Liam mostyn but Sarsfields put further distance between the teams in the 23rd minute as an excellent Darragh Lyons pass allowed Liam Garrigan the chance to fire home past the on-rushing Kevin Hogan in the Faughs goal.
An Oisín Walsh point in added time trimmed the Faughs deficit to five points (2-6 to 1-4) by half-time and they maintained that momentum upon the restart through a brace of frees by Mossy Moore.
With the likes of Liam Cooney, Sean O’Brien, Sean McDonald and Rory King all to the fore, Faughs held Lucan scoreless for the third quarter and could well have added a second goal but Scott McConnell’s shot struck the crossbar with Lucan’s Sean Langton clearing the rebound to safety.
Sarsfields availed of that let-off to edge further ahead courtesy of scores by Hugh Cuffe, Joey Dunne and Harkness with Lucan hanging in thanks to points by Aedan Mostyn and Moore.
However, their fate was sealed in the 56th minute as brothers Charlie Mulqueen and David Mulqueen combined for the latter to add Lucan’s third goal and put the result beyond doubt.
