It’s been a great week for New York hurlers as they had three very impressive victories and were crowned Connacht League champions. The games were played at UCG’s Connacht Air Dome in Bekan, beside Claremorris, the largest such sports air dome in the world.
As expected New York had a facile victory over a totally mismatched Leitrim, 4-27 to 1-13, in the opening game. Leitrim, the least populous county, has only two hurling clubs. The Big Apple squad had 12 scorers and chief among them were, Martin Cullen(1-5), Ger McPartland(2-0), Aidan Organ(1-2), Adam Loughlin-Stones and David Mangan had (0-4) each, while center-back Darragh Moran chipped in with three. Their next opponents were the Galway development squad, all junior players, and a great team performance saw them defeat the Galwegians by 1-27 to 1-16. Incidentally there were six Galway natives playing for New York.
The exchanges were fairly even for the opening quarter, but then scores from David Mangan, AJ Willis, Aidan Organ, Conor Caulfield and Adam Loughlin Stones propelled the Yanks to lead by 0-15 to 0-8 at the break. Galway enjoyed their best patch after the break as Ger Flahive and Colm O’Hanlon belted over a bevy of points, but a goal midway from AJ Willis put New York back in the driver’s seat. New York’s versatility was well illustrated with eleven scorers. David Mangan(0-8) was top scorer and AJ Willis(1-4)got the man of match accolade. Other flag-raisers were Martin Cullen(0-3), Ruadhan Mulrooney, Conor Caulfield, Adam Loughlin-Stones and Ger McPartland each had a brace, while Aidan Organ, Cian O’Dea and Darragh Moran had singles.
New York 2-25 Mayo 2-12
Though both teams started with a brace of points, Martin Cullen and David Mangan for New York, and Adrian Philips and Michael Farrell for Mayo in the opening five minutes, New York totally dominated the rest of the period. They were vastly superior in fitness and skill coupled with resolute defending by Darragh Hynes and Enna Barry and company. Manager Richie Hartnett’s coaching was evidently paying dividends. In fact they kept Mayo off the scoreboard for 30 minutes with robust and relentless hounding.
Mayo’s inept shooting didn’t help their cause either. New York went in leading by 0-14 to 1-2 at the break with co-captain Mangan contributing 6pts. Mayo’s goal by Mathew Connors, before the interval resulted from an uncharacteristic defensive snafu. However upon resumption it was quickly negated by a brilliantly executed goal by Martin Cullen. Meanwhile Mayo were much better in the second half as Cormac Philips, their best player and chief scorer, rained over several points as well as banging in a goal from a free through a packed goal-mouth. Still New York were never in danger as Mangan, Willis, Cullen, McPartland and company pointed regularly, while McPartland also banged in a goal. Man of the Match David Mangan scored the last point, just after substitute Evan Deegan scored a brilliant point. Now the Big Apple team has earned the chance to advance to the next level, namely the Lory Meagher competition. However the scheduling logistics may be problematic for the New York squad.
New York: James McCormack; Darragh Hynes(co-capt, 0-1), Enna Barry, Colin O’Brien; Conor Caulfield, Darragh Moran, Darren O’Donoghue; Adam Loughlin-Stones(0-1), Cian O’Dea(0-1); AJ Willis(0-1), David Mangan(co-capt, 0-12), Martin Cullen(1-4); Ruadhan Mulrooney(0-1), Ger McPartland(1-2), Aidan Organ(0-1). Subs Mick Ward, Brian McPartland, James Breen, Evan Deegan(0-1), Conor Lynch, Joe McBride, Conor Morrissey, Gearoid Kennedy, Emmett Hunter, Johnny Power, David Pond.
Mayo: Dave Frayne, Luke Connor, Danny Hill, Conor Murray, Even Heraty, Eoghan Collins, Shane Crinnigan, John Heraty, Adrian Phillips(0-4), Joe Burke, Cormac Phillips(1-6), Sean Mulroy, Michael Farrell(0-1), Mathew Connor(1-0), Kealen Gallagher. Subs Brian O’Donovan, Paddy Dozio, Diarmuid Phillips, Ronan O’Reilly, Brendan Sheridan, Ronan Fallon, Anthony Rowland.
Referee Paul Fahey.
Man of Match David Mangan.
