Loughrea 1-17 Pearses 1-15. Despite going down by two points in the end Pearses U15 hurlers displayed good character on Friday evening in Duggan Park, Ballinasloe. They trailed by six points at half time and Loughrea looked in control of the game, but they fought back to hit the front with 15 minutes left. The teams were level twice in the final quarter before Loughrea edged it.
An Oisin Flannery free opened the scoring and Pearses lead 0-2 to 0-0 after five minutes. Loughrea were back level on nine minutes and the teams were deadlocked again on 13 minutes, 0-3 apiece. Dean Reilly’s using his pace to good effect up front with two points for Pearses. Loughrea hit a purple patch yielding 1-6 and had opened a seven point lead by the 20th minute. Dean Reilly ended an eight minute scoreless spell for Pearses on 25 minutes and the teams shared six points evenly before the half-time whistle: Loughrea 1-12 Pearses 0-9.
Pearses came flying into the game in the third quarter and hit an unanswered 1-4 in this period to take the lead. Oisin Flannery (3) and Reilly were the point scorers. Flannery was also the goalscorer when his dropping shot ended up in the net from 45 yards, Luke Mitchell’s leap across the keeper’s line of vision leaving the netminder unsighted for that split second. With 15 minutes left Pearses led 1-13 to 1-12.
Two Loughrea points pushed them ahead with ten minutes remaining. Flannery levelled again from a placed ball on 52 minutes. Loughrea outscored Pearses 0-3 to 0-1 in the final minutes to take the title. Well done to the lads for the way they came back after half-time. It’s admirable to see such a quality in young players.
Pearses (panel): D McCabe; B Kelly, E McCabe, N Moran; M Hennelly, S Hynes, R Hynes; J Barrett (0-1), G Kenny; C Kitt (0-1), O Flannery (1-9), C Murphy, Eoin Lally, D Reilly (0-4), J Mitchell. Subs: Ethan Lally, L Mitchell, R Fahy, C Moran.