O’Brien is Declan’s hero with hat-trick
Daire Walsh – 24 October 2013 02:30 PM
ST DECLAN’S CBS 5-13, SALESIAN COLLEGE 4-3 – Pierce O’Brien was the hero in O’Toole Park yesterday, as his hat-trick paved the way for St Declan’s CBS to record a magnificent victory in the Dublin Post-Primary Schools Junior Hurling ‘B’ decider.
Declan’s opened the scoring with a point from Ben Cullen two minutes in, but Salesian soon burst into prominence with a terrific individual goal by midfielder Ciaran O’Shaughnessy.
Centre-forward O’Shaughnessy raised a second green flag for the Celbridge school 13 minutes in, and even though Declan’s had reduced the gap by the 24th minute with points from Brian McDonnell (three), Conor Bresnan and Gavin Longmore, inside forward Conor Doyle registered a third major for Salesian before the break.
Declan’s looked set to be on level terms at the mid-way stage when Glen Dodrill followed up an O’Brien point with a neat three-pointer, but Doyle showed his predatory instinct once more to fire home on the half-hour mark.
This gave Salesian a slender cushion (4-2 to 1-8) but their advantage was quickly wiped out thanks to O’Brien’s first goal of the day, and he added a second 10 minutes later, their opponents were left with a mountain to climb.
Tony Archibold eventually opened their second-half account with a 44th-minute point, but O’Brien slotted home his third goal of the tie from the subsequent attack, and thanks to further scores from Donal Burke, Bresnan and Dylan Curley, as well as a fortuitous goal by substitute Christopher O’Brien, Declan’s were able to ease over the line.