The under 16 hurlers faced the same opposition as their under 14 counterparts in their opening round-robin game played in Whitechurch in glorious sunshine on Monday night last (20th July). In this case, the scoreline does reflect the dominance of Colmcilles who put in a polished performance throughout. They did get off to a rather fortuitous start, though, with impressive centre forward Shane Daly’s attempt at point from a free out in the wing deceiving the Whitechurch keeper and ending up in the back of the net. Though they may have received a bit of luck with this score, there was nothing lucky about Patrick Harrington’s goal as he descended on goal with intended before giving the Whitechurch keeper no chance with his shot. This goal had made the score 2-05 to 0-00 and it was pretty much over as a contest by then. Whitechurch managed their first score from a free shortly after but this was immediately cancelled out with a point from Colmcilles’ wing back Robert Docherty who had soloed up the field and cooly slotted over. Eddie Coughlan added a point from a sixty-five before Whitechurch registered their first point from play. This was followed by another point from play immediately after which sent murmurs of a comeback through the Whitechurch following. This was short-lived though as Patrick Harrington bagged his second goal and Eddie Coughlan scored the pick of his 8 points with a lovely strike from out on the wing. The half time score read Colmcilles 3-11 Whitechurch 0-04.
The second half started as the first with another Shane Daly goal to open the scoring. This time he used his football skills to boot the sliothar low to the net. The same level of intensity was not evident as in the first half. Perhaps this was understandable given the scoreline. Patrick Harrington grabbed his third goal midway though to secure his hattrick. A small bit of silliness saw the same player sent off shortly after. This was disappointing as he was having a superb game up to that point. No doubt he will learn from that. There was only one point from a free in that half as Whitechurch enjoyed more attacking possession. Though they managed to score a
few pointed frees and one from play, they rarely troubled their opponents defence which was marshalled superbly my centre-back Martin Murphy.