Ireland are in 7th heaven.

 

Ireland 12

Puerto Pico 11

UL Sports Fields

Eoin Horkan

On Saturday afternoon the Irish U21 lacrosse team managed to beat Puerto Rico by a solitary goal to finish 7^th in the world.

Puerto Rico started off the first quarter at a blistering pace and looked to spoil the party for Ireland. They managed to score three goals in the opening six minutes . This great start didn’t seem to phase the Irish team as they netted twice in the last four minutes. The first of these goals coming from Aidan Dempsey with an assist from Ben Collins. The second goal the Irish managed was on  the counterattack as Liam Horkan fed Conor Foley to narrow the gap to one at the end of the quarter.

The second quarter was a full on Irish onslaught on the Puerto Rican defence. Kevin Somerville and Foley fired in goals within the opening five minutes . Foley rattled the net again with nine minutes left in the half. The opposition finally managed to take control of the ball and narrow the gap to one with six minutes left in the half . The final goal of the half came from the stick of Sean Horkan after Aidan Dempsey found him wide open next to the goal.

The third quarter was much the same from the Irish team as they kept control of the ball and had the Puerto Ricans on the rack. The opposition were manging  to stay within touching distance all the time as they narrowed the gap again. With Foley on fire as he made the team of the tournament  he fired in a great solo goal. Puerto Rico narrowed the gap to the minimum again. Foley was controlling the game on attack assisted Sean Horkan twice in as many minutes to leave two goals between the sides at the end of the 3^rd quarter.

The final quarter turned into a goal fest from both sides. As defences  were tiring the attack from both sides started to cause more problems. It was the Puerto Rico who pushed forward first in the quarter and within seven minutes managed to fire in four goals to give them a lead against the run of play. It looked like the Irish team were in trouble at this point and maybe this is what kicked them into gear. With six minutes left Aidan Dempsey narrowed the gap to one . With a minute thirty left on the clock Foley tied up the game as it looked like we were heading to overtime.  This was until the man of the tournament for Ireland Foley netted to give his side a well-deserved win.

 

Ireland: Conor Breen; Matthew Brennan, Ben Collins , Gavin Conlan; Finn Daly. Aidan Dempsey, Jack Doherty, Conor Foley, Jack Galvin, Joseph Gehle Sean Horkan, Liam Horkan, Ridley Horton, Aedan Kearns, Fionn Kinsella , Matt Loftus, Sean Loftus, Patrick McKee, Brady Morin, Kevin Somerville, Michael Songer, Jack Songer, Joe Walsh, Ronan Walsh.