Piltown welcomed Dunnamaggin on the 27th March 2017 for the first round of the Duggan Steel u-16 hurling league. We were treated to a great opening league match with lots of excitement & great hurling throughout.
Daryl Maye opened Piltown’s scoring with a point from a converted free and Dunnamaggin responded with three points before Francis Moore linked up with Conor McGowan who passed the ball in to Dylan Wall who scored a lovely point in the 10th minute. Dunnamaggin scored another from a converted free and some good defending from Dunnamaggin denied Piltown a goal & they had to settle for a 65 from Daryl Maye. On the Dunnamaggin puck out, Sean O’Neill cleared a breaking ball up the wing to Francis Moore who scored a fantastic point from the sideline. Billy O’Callaghan put his name on the scoreboard in the 15th minute with a point from a converted free. Dunnamaggin upped the ante with a goal in the 17th minute but less than a minute later, Francis Moore scored his first goal of the evening. A sideline ball from Daryl Maye looked like it was going wide but a quick-thinking Micheál Norris managed to keep the ball in play with a quick flick which sent it across the goal mouth directly to Francis who buried it in the back of the Dunnamaggin net.
Dunnamaggin’s full forward scored in the 19th minute and then Aaron Kinsella’s puck out found Francis Moore who, with a quick turn, sent in a high ball that looked like it was going over the bar but it dropped in just behind the Dunnamaggin goalie for Francis’ second goal of the evening. Dunnamaggin’s corner forward added another point to their tally and shortly after, their centre-forward was bearing down on the Piltown goal but was denied a goal with a great save from Aaron Kinsella. A second attempt shortly after was also denied Dunnamaggin with some great defending from Aaron and Eoin Morgan. Piltown closed out the first half with three more points, one from Francis Moore & two from Billy O’Callaghan from converted frees. HT score Piltown 2-8 Dunnamaggin 1-6.
Dunnamaggin came out on the attack & upped the intensity in the second half and scored four points before Piltown recorded their first score of the second half in the 43rd minute when Francis Moore scored his hat trick with another great goal. Dunnamaggin dominated the game for the next 15 minutes adding 1-4 to their tally & they certainly tried for more but Tommy O’Driscoll and Ciaran McDonald stepped up and led the defence in stopping the Dunnamaggin charge & Evan O’Shea working his way back down the line, put in some great blocks to help the defence. Piltown were three points down coming up to the 60-minute mark when they were awarded a free & when Billy O’Callaghan stood up to take the free, everyone thought he would send it over the bar but Billy had other ideas and drilled it past all the defenders to level the game with a great goal. We were now into injury time and Dunnamaggin’s corner forward, who had a great game, scored what everyone thought was the winning point but Piltown weren’t giving up and Daryl Maye scored the equaliser in the 62nd minute. FT score Piltown 4-9 Dunnamaggin 2-15.
Piltown panel: Aaron Kinsella, Eoin Morgan, Tommy O’Driscoll, Aidan Friend, Aidan Walsh, Sean O’Neill, Ciaran McDonald, Conor McGowan, Evan O’Shea, Darragh Whittle, Dylan Wall (0-1), Daryl Maye (0-3, 0-2f), Francis Moore (3-2), Micheál Norris, Billy O’Callaghan (1-3f).
Subs: Senan McDonald, Cathal Knox, Ben Grace, Aaron Reid, Andrew Dermody.
Ref: Raymond Byrne
