Valley Rovers hurling is on a roll as U14s defeat Aghada in entertaining final

Valley Rovers 2-12 Aghada 2-8

A SUPERB second-half saw Valley Rovers make it a good week for the club as the won the Carrigaline Court Hotel Premier 2 U14 HC final at Páirc Uí Rinn on Saturday.

The previous Saturday they won the U16 equivalent to make it a good week for the club and they still have another few finals to go yet.

Conditions didn’t favour good hurling and it’s to the credit of both sides that they served up a game of the standard they did.

For the winners, the likes of Eoin Guinane, Matthew Woods and Kevin Dart O’Flynn were in good form with Fionn O’Connor, Sean O’Sullivan and Tomás Condon the pick of the Aghada side.

Aghada got off to a great start, with Noah Devoy opening the scoring and John Walsh adding a second from a free. Walsh was on target again, from another free, with Devoy then getting his second, to make it 0-4 to no score with 11 minutes gone.

Their good start got even better when Stephen O’Shea took on the Valleys defence and blasted to the net.

Valleys started to settle with Davie Carthew opening their account and Shane Ryan adding a second.

They were dealt another blow when Condon got Aghada’s second goal, to make it 2-4 to 0-2 with 21 minutes gone.

However, Valleys came storming back, with Guinane on target twice, followed by points from Daniel Lynch, Conor Desmond and Carthew to make it 2-4 to 0-7 at half-time.

O’Shea increased Aghada’s lead at the start of the second half before Valleys took over. Guinane pointed from a free and from the re-start Desmond regained possession, ran at the Aghada defence to find the back of the net. Two minutes later and they got their second when Carthew scored, to make it 2-8 to 2-4.

Two frees from Guinane increased their lead, with O’Connor replying for Aghada. O’Flynn and O’Connor exchanged scores, with Carthew making it 2-12 to 2-7.

O’Connor got the last score, but time was against them as Valleys ran out deserving winners of an entertaining game.

Scorers for Valley Rovers: D Carthew 1-3, C Desmond 1-1, E Guinane 0-5 (0-4 f), S Ryan, D Lynch, KD O’Flynn 0-1 each.

Aghada: S O’Shea 1-1, T Condon 1-0, F O’Connor 0-3 (0-2 f, 0-1 65), N Devoy, J Walsh 0-2 each.

VALLEY ROVERS: R Kelleher; T McGrath, J Woods, R O’Donovan; S O’Connor, M Woods, A Slattery; E Guinane, S Ryan; K D O’Flynn, C Desmond, F Nash; K Kelleher, D Carthew, D Lynch.

Subs: H O’Sullivan for F Nash, C Fennelly for K Kelleher.

AGHADA: J Hurley; C Geary, F O’Callaghan, H Mulcahy; C Geary, F O’Connor, A Kearns; S O’Sullivan, O Slye; J Flynn, N Devoy, J Walsh; T Condon, S O’Shea, S O’Callaghan.

Subs: S O’Driscoll for S O’Callaghan, R Walsh for H Mulcahy, R Dean for C Geary, J Motherway for S O’Shea.

Referee: Alec Gibbons, Nemo Rangers.