East Cork JHL: Josh Hogan stars as Magpies win league opener against Carrigtwohill
Conor Morley, Midleton, scored 1-1 and was a danger up front. Picture Dan Linehan
In challenging conditions, it was Midleton who emerged victorious over Carrigtwohill in the opening round of the Amarenco East Cork Junior Hurling League Division 1.
A repeat of last year’s Junior A HC relegation playoff that saw Carrig come out on top, Josh Hogan was immense for Midleton, scoring 10 points from 10 shots.
With the injection of youth, the Magpies pulled away early on and got their league campaign underway with a win on Friday night in Carrigtwohill. A 1-10 to 0-4 advantage at half time against the breeze told all. It was comfortable, it was convincing.
Carrigtwohill did start the second half with a little more urgency, making two substitutions and moving David Joseph from full-forward into corner-back.
They hit the first four attempts of the latter period but only two went over, as Luke Kelly twice raised white flags from frees. In the space of 60 seconds Hogan undid that work with a brace of points.
The closest Carrig got in the second half was the three-quarter mark, with Midleton’s lead at eight, but another couple of points from the ever-present Hogan stretched the visitors’ lead back to 10 heading into the final few minutes.
It was far from a decent performance by the hosts but there were some positives. They moved the ball well at times and David Rooney did well in defence, but Midleton were far slicker.
Carrig led after seven minutes when Sean O’Sullivan split the posts with the opening point, but a quick reply from Hogan who was set up by Cathal Beausang got Midleton back on level terms.
Cian Crowley drove a stellar effort over the shoulder and between the posts, before Jack Fitzgerald, who was very impressive in possession – drove the ball into Conor Morley. The full-forward wrestled away from his man and buried it.
In under three minutes Midleton had fired off 1-2. By the 20th minute, it was 1-8 to 0-2 when Morley should have had a second goal, but his effort was too high. Even by that stage the game was over, as two frees from Hogan and one from play through Eoghan Fraser had moved Midleton eight ahead prior to Morley’s scuffed goal chance.
Carrig were never able to reduce that gap, and Midleton saw out the win comfortably.
L Kelly 0-6 (0-5 f), S O’Sullivan 0-2, D Rooney, D Joseph 0-1 each.
J Hogan 0-10 (0-7 f), C Morley 1-1, B O’Shea (f), D Garde (f), E Fraser, C Crowley, C Beausang 0-1 each.
S Devlin; A Kidney, A Rooney, J Scully; J Barrett, D Rooney, D Nolan; N Harte, C Flynn; J McCarthy, S O’Sullivan, P Walsh; L Kelly, D Joseph, L Scriven.
L Walsh for Scriven, T O’Sullivan for Scully (both HT), C O’Sullivan for A Rooney (42).
B Rossiter; M McSweeney, A Coughlan, L Hennessy; C O’Brien, B O’Shea, E McCarthy; E Fraser, A Moloney; E McGrath, J Fitzgerald, C Beausang; C Crowley, C Morley, J Hogan.
D Garde for Fitzgerald (46), C Walsh for Coughlan (48), A Power for Fraser (52), H Wall for Hogan (54).
Jimmy Smiddy (Castlemartyr)
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