JOHN COUGHLAN

Carrigtwohill 1-16
Brian Dillons 0-10

A CRISP brand of hurling from Carrigtwohill ensured they saw off Brian Dillons in the Rebel Og Premier 2 Minor hurling championship at CIT last night.
The physical power of the east Cork side was evident from the early stages and although Dillons played some good hurling they could not match their opponents intensity.
Carrigtwohill punished Dillons on their first possession when Brendan McCarthy was left unmarked that saw him place the ball wide of the helpless Brian Dillons keeper.
Credit to Dillons they fought back and Adam Cotter almost raised a green flag two minutes later but his shot went inches wide of the left post.
In one of the best moves of the game a high ball across the square was doubled on by the Carrigtwohill half forward Jamie McCarthy but amazingly his blockbuster shot crashed off the crossbar.
Christopher Keegan showed great accuracy with his free taking as Carrigtwohill deservedly led 1-8 to 0-3 at the break.
To be fair Dillons upped the tempo on the restart and with Kevin Coughlan and Keith McCormack battling hard they chipped away at the Carrigtwohill lead.
In the 40th minute Kevin Coughlan almost brought his team to within four points of their opponents but his superb 21-yard strike following a free was brilliantly saved by theStephen Flynn.
To be fair Dillons refused to throw the towel in and they made Carrigtwohill fight all the way to the final whistle.
When Dillons look back on this game they will rue giving away silly frees and if they had notstarted slowly they may well have caused their opponents a few more problems.
In the endCarrigtwohill ran out deserving winners that suggests their underage programme is continuing to produce talented hurlers.
Scorers for Carrigtwohill: C Keegan 0-8 (0-6f), S Rohan 0-4, B McCarthy 1-1, J McCarthy0-2, C Gosnell 0-1.
Brian Dillons: K Coughlan 0-6(0-4f), K McCormack 0-2, K Delaney, E O’Donoghue (0-1 each).
Carrigtwohill: S Devlin; J Carey, J Barden, R Higgins; O Cooney, B Cashman, A Creagh; E O’Mahony, J Horgan; C Keegan, S Rohan, C Gosnell; J McCarthy, B McCarthy, C McCarthy.
Brian Dillons: S Corcoran; D Gillen, D O’Donoghue, D O’Neill; M Gleeson, K McCormack, S Kearney; J McGuire, K Allen; T O’Sullivan, C O’Callaghan, K Coughlan; A Cotter, K Delaney, E O’Donoghue.
Referee: N Wall (Carrigaline).