IAHC: Mayfield slip past Sars after five goals and high drama

Mayfield 2-15 Sarsfields 3-10 

A crucial win for Mayfield as they saw off Sarsfields in the Co-Op Superstores Intermediate Hurling Championship in a thrilling game at Carraig na bhFear on Saturday.

By virtue of this win, Mayfield will now face Lisgoold in the quarter-final of this championship after showing decent form in all their three group games.

A superb Michael John Coffey point gave Mayfield the perfect start in the second minute with a strike that was followed by a similar Dylan O’Donovan white flag.

After going 10 minutes without a score a superb Aidan Hackett point got them up and running a minute later they were denied a certain goal when Richard O’Keeffe denied Shane O’Regan with a courageous stop.

The Mayfield defence were caught napping in the 16th minute when they allowed the experienced Shane O’Regan solo through unchallenged before the Sars forward billowed the back of the net.

After a solid start, Mayfield were getting punished by the movement and striking of Ben Nodwell and he showed his class with five minutes remaining to the interval when batting the ball past the bewildered O’Keeffe.

Credit to Mayfield they responded in style and a wonderful move five minutes to the interval saw Nicky Kelly assist a perfect pass to Coffey who struck a perfect shot to the corner of the net.

Credit to Mayfield they responded in the closing minutes with points from Shane O’Donovan and Dave O’Neill that saw them go in at the break on parity, 2-4 to 1-7.

On the restart, both sides went for the jugular as exchanged points for long periods but when Sars look back on this game they will rue some poor wides they had over the hour.

The game was finely balanced in the closing minute but poor Sars defending allowed Tom Horgan score a crucial goal.

To be fair Sars threw the kitchen sink at their opponents at the death and despite O’Regan scoring a late goal from a free it was too little, too late as they failed to hit the levels needed to qualify this group of death.

Scorers for Mayfield: N Kelly 0-7 (0-3 f), M J Coffey 1-1, T Horgan 1-0, D O’Neill 0-3, D O’Donovan, S O’Donovan (f), K Punch, D Malone (0-1 each).

Sarsfields: S O’Regan 2-1 (1-0 f), B Nodwell 1-4, J O’Leary 0-2, B Graham 0-2, A Hackett 0-1.

MAYFIELD: R O’Keeffe; S Keegan, B Punch, D Lucey; D O’Donovan, S O’Donovan, K Punch; F McSweeney, E O’Sullivan; D Malone, N Kelly, M J Coffey; D O’Neill, S Kelly, T Horgan.

Subs: P Duggan for S Kelly (39), D O’Gorman for P Duggan (41), K Cusack for D Malone (55).

SARSFIELDS: C Looney; C English, K Crowley, K Walsh; J Leahy, D Roche, C Smith; S O’Driscoll, D Long; B Nodwell, A Hackett, J O’Leary; E O’Sullivan, S O’Regan, B Graham.

Subs: J O’Leary for A Hackett (h-t), S Higgins for J Leahy (39), C English for D English (48), I Burke for S O’Driscoll (60), C Duggan for D Long (60).

Referee: Ian McCarthy (Bandon).