Reigning champions Douglas kickstart P1 Minor Hurling Championship with a dominant win over Youghal
Dylan Murray, Douglas getting the full attention of Youghal players Ronan O'Brien and Jayden Casey during their P1 minor hurling championship match at Youghal, Co Cork. Picture Dan Linehan
DOUGLAS outclassed Youghal in Copperalley on Wednesday evening to get their Premier 1 Hurling Championship defence off to the perfect start, as their first half blitz ensured the win.
Three scores on the bounce from Oliver Haynes Barry, Ronan Dooley and Mark O’Brien saw Douglas lead 0-4 to 0-1 after just six minutes, and when Brian Lynch responded with a point for Youghal, the visitors took control.
Donncha MacPhaidín played a great long ball to Dooley, who handpassed it off to Mark O’Brien, and the corner-forward buried it into the net.
Dooley followed up his assist with two points and continued to cause havoc for the struggling Youghal defence.
Oisin Walsh made a strong save to stop Dooley from netting a second Douglas goal, and when Luke Lenane put over a strong score for their hosts, it looked as though their fortunes may change.
Douglas pointed twice more, but Luke Lenane got a goal back for Youghal, as Brian Lynch’s long-range shot was stopped, but parried into the path of the running Lenane who scooped it into the back of the net.
Douglas restored their commanding lead five minutes later, as O’Brien picked up the ball and darted through the Youghal defence, before burying it past Walsh, who had no chance of preventing it.
From there, Douglas finished out the last 10 minutes of the half in style, as they scored 1-5, while the hosts could only manage 0-3.
With the half time score 1-7 to 3-14 in favour of the reigning champions, Youghal had a mountain to climb in the second period.
Douglas started the second as they finished the first, with the highlight of the third quarter being Dooley’s second goal, a rocket from outside the 20-metre line.
Fionn Hill picked up the score of the game with his long-range point in the 45th minute, and as Youghal finally found a way to shut Dooley out of the game, they outscored Douglas 1-4 to 0-2.
The reigning champions finished with a winning margin of 13, the same as it was during the interval.
J Casey 0-7 (0-6 f), L Lenane 1-2, J Lenane 1-1, F Hill, B Lynch 0-2 each.
R Dooley 2-11 (0-7 f), M O’Brien 2-4, S Coakley, D Murray 0-2 each, D O’Connell, O Haynes Barry 0-1 each.
O Walsh; N Hegarty, M Desmond, L Durkin; F Hill, R O’Brien, G Geary; J Casey, J Dineen; S O’Brien, B Lynch, J Lenane, E Kennedy, L Lenane, Z Skehan.
C Galvin for Skehan (h-t), P Nicholson for S O’Brien (46), D Tressero for Geary (53).
M Kelly; L Kelleher, B O’Hehir, S O’Sullivan; D Murray, D Reddington, D MacPhaidín; O Haynes Barry, J O’Brien; J Mouret, R Dooley, S Coakley; T Lucas, D O’Connell, M O’Brien.
S Sheedy for MacPhaidín, D O’Sullivan for S O’Sullivan, S Daly for Kelly, D Taaffe for Murray (all 53), F Nash for Lucas (57).
Cathal McAllister (Aghada).
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