Camross crown dominant campaign with U/17 championship success

Midlands Park U/17 Hurling Championship Final

Camross 4-20 

Barrow Gaels 3-13 

CAMROSS picked up the first bit of silverware on county final Sunday in Laois Hire O'Moore Park with a ten point win over Barrow Gaels in the Midlands Park U/17 Hurling Championship final.

They last won this competition in 2017 and they were far and away the best team in it this year once again, going undefeated in six games en-route to the final before following it up with another top notch display against a sticky opponent in Barrow Gaels, comprised of Clonaslee/St Manman's and Rosenallis.

Camross captain Luke Hynes and centre-forward LJ Cuddy were the stars of the show for the victors, combining for 2-10 from play in two excellent displays around the middle of the park.

The winners led from early on but Barrow Gaels remained within touching distance by half time, mainly thanks to Senan O'Brien and Tadgh Hughes who were both a constant danger against the odds.

Camross built up a healthy lead by the midway stage of the first half before it was brought back to six by half time.

Luke Hynes and LJ Cuddy did an incredible amount of damage in the opening five minutes of the second half to fire Camross into a commanding lead and they all but had the game won minutes after the restart.

The first flag was raised just seconds after the throw in when Lukas Dowling split the posts from the right hand side and Cian Fitzpatrick doubled the lead a minute later.

Camross had the advantage of the slight breeze blowing in the direction of Portlaoise and they added two more to their tally by the fourth minute with strikes from Ryan Guilfoyle and Darragh Mortimer, and Shay McEvoy did well to deny Guilfoyle a goal.

Tadgh Hughes got Barrow Gaels off the mark with a good point from corner forward and Senan O'Brien struck a brace of frees after an initial reply from an LJ Cuddy free.

Cuddy was on hand to score from play on the run and captain Luke Hynes increased the gap to four with a good score before Aidan Byrne was called into action to deny Guilfoyle again in front of the goals.

The intercounty duo Hynes and Cuddy struck again from play either side of an O'Brien free.

Disaster struck for Barrow Gaels when a shot in from Cian Fitzpatrick caught Shay McEvoy off guard and with the sun blazing in his eyes he was unable to keep the shot out.

Just five minutes later Camross were in for their second goal after Hynes made a driving run through the middle of the field and he found LJ Cuddy who put his body on the line by taking a huge hit to lay it off to Guilfoyle who eventually got his goal.

Barrow Gaels made a couple of reactionary changes and they appeared to instil a new lease of life as they struck points from Hughes (2) and Cillian Dunne.

They got themselves right back into contention when sub Kevin McCann was hauled down in the area and O'Brien stepped up to hit the penalty off the turf and into the net.

All momentum was with the North Laois men but the final score of the half came form an LJ Cuddy free to make it 2-10 to 1-7 at half time.

Any momentum they had built before half time was quickly scundered when Camross captain Hynes had the ball in the net just seconds after the restart and LJ Cuddy added Camross's fourth goal just a minute later after great work by Darragh Mortimer.

A trio of points from Cuddy and another one from Hynes saw Camross into a sixteen point lead just six minutes into the half, and the victory was all but ensured very early on.

Barrow Gaels continued to battle on and Brian Kelly got himself a goal after Cillian Dunne showed great determination to keep the ball from going out over the endline and get it back inside to Kelly to stroke home off the ground.

O'Brien stuck over some excellent scores form play and from placed balls but Camross continued to fire into the Abbeyleix end through Cuddy, Hynes and Ciaran Palmer O'Keeffe.

The final score of the game was a goal for Barrow Gaels through an O'Brien free, capping off an excellent performance by the man himself but Camross were home and hosed by that point and the celebrations began seconds later.

SCORERS:

Camross: LJ Cuddy 1-11 (0-4fs, 0-1 65), Luke Hynes 1-4, Cian Fitzpatrick and Ryan Guilfoyle 1-1 each, Lukas Dowling, Darragh Mortimer and Ciaran Palmer O'Keeffe 0-1 each.

Barrow Gaels: Senan O'Brien 2-9 (1-6fs, 1-0 pen, 0-2 65), Tadgh Hughes 0-3, Brian Kelly 1-0, Cillian Dunne 0-1.

CAMROSS: Daniel Sheeran; Jacob Hilliard, Leo Guilfoyle, Darragh Cuddy; DJ Cuddy, Aaron Bredin, Charlie Peavoy; Darragh Mortimer, Luke Hynes; Tadhg Lowry, LJ Cuddy, Lukas Dowling; Jack Delaney, Ryan Guilfoyle, Cian Fitzpatrick.

Subs: Ciaran Palmer O'Keeffe for Lowry (35m), Oisin Guilfoyle for Peavoy (35m), Tiernan Dunne for Dowling (55m), Hugo O'Neill for Hilliard (58m), Jack Higgins for Fitzpatrick (58m).

BARROW GAELS: Shay McEvoy; Luke Kelly, Aidan Byrne, Conor O’Shea; Cullen Hyland, Oisin Dunne, Adam Somers; Oran McEvoy, Cillian Dunne; Oran Dunne, Senan O’Brien, Ronan Cuddy; Charlie Conroy, Brian Kelly, Tadgh Hughes.

Subs: Ethan Flanagan for Hyland (22m), Kevin McCann for O Dunne (26m), Oran Dunne for O McEvoy (ht), Conor Flanagan for O'Shea (35m), Jack Culleton for Somers (42m, inj) Referee: Anthony Stapleton (Rathdowney/Errill)