Gaelic Football – 2nd Year, November 2019

After a very convincing win against Ardgillen last week, our second-year footballers knew they would face a much stiffer challenge against Donabate Community College last Tuesday. Aided by a gale force breeze in the first half Blackrock only led by 2 points on a score line of 0-5 to 0-3.

Within five minutes of the second half, Donabate had already overcome our two-point advantage to lead 0-6 to 0-5. However, the team showed true character and never dropped their heads.

Goals win games and when they were needed most in this game, the boys produced. A goal against the run of play put us 2 points ahead. Once again, the opposition scored 3 points in a row to put them back in control. The boys really showed their character and fought back scoring two goals in a row. There was still time for Donabate to draw level scoring 1-2 without reply in the dying moments of the game. With the referee calling last play on our kickout, we produced our best move of the game with the ball moved swiftly through eight of our players and ending up in the back of the Donabate net.

Scorers on the day were Daniel O’Callaghan (3-2), Luke Murphy (1-1) and captain, Mark Dempsey (0-3). The scorers should credit the other players as this was a superb team performance throughout. The boys illustrated their resilience on numerous occasions in the second half, as they shifted the momentum of the game against a fancied opposition, who had a strong breeze to support them. They have now qualified for the quarter finals of the competition.

I would like to thank Mr. Curtis, Pat Smith and Mr Grant for preparing the team over the last few weeks.