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 7th 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 3rd 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.
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