Cuala battle back to win IHC title

Sun, 28th October 2018

CUALA 2-16 ST MARK’S 2-10

Cuala were crowned Dublin intermediate hurling champions when defeating St Mary’s in Sunday’s decider at Chanel, Parnell’s.

The Dalkey men did it the hard way after trailing by four points, 1-7 to 0-6, at the interval with Joey Cannon hitting the Mark’s goal, his first of two.

Former Dublin senior David ‘Dotsy’ O’Callaghan was also in fine form and he tallied 0-6 over the hour.

Cannon's second goal came early in the second-half and at that stage Mark's looked well on their way to victory.

However, a scoring surge around the midpoint of the second-half had Cuala back in contention.

They scored six points without reply and Niall Keane’s long-range effort brought the sides level, 2-8 to 0-14.

Inside the last ten minutes a Cuala penalty was converted by their keeper Ryan Di Felice.

He then put away a long-range free as Cuala maintained their sprint for the finish.

In added time Naoise Waldron made sure of victory with Cuala’s second goal.

SCORERS – Cuala: E Murphy 0-7 (0-7f), N Waldron 1-3, R Di Felice 1-2 (1-2f), J Byrne 0-2, N Keane, D Lane 0-1 each. St Mark’s: J Cannon 2-1, D O’Callaghan 0-6 (0-2f), J Kelly 0-2 (0-2f), S McCann 0-1.

CUALA: R Di Felice; N O’Dowd, C Schutte, J Lahart; C O’Farrell, E Hanley, N Keane; D Twomey, D Lane; D Ryan, A Power, J Byrne; E Murphy, J Twomey, N Waldron. Subs: B Cornealla for Schutte (inj, ht), L Ó Giolláin for Ryan (50), M Higgins for Lane (inj, 62).

ST MARK’S: R Kenny; P Murphy, J Bryan, D O’Flaherty; D Glynn, D Kearns, K Hoare; S McCann, R Farrell; Ciarán Rabbitte, J Kelly, G Whelan; Conall Rabbitte, D O’Callaghan, J Cannon. Sub: J Hillard for Whelan (ht).

REF: D Burnett (Craobh Chiaráin).