The Roche U16s headed out to Cooley on a sunny Monday evening in anticipation of another tough examination in their regional competition. Both teams were successful in their opening matches so a close encounter was expected by the sizeable crowd present.

The Boys in Blue started the match very well with Ryan Martin and Sean Connolly giving them a great platform in the middle of the field. Their dominance was rewarded when a great 'fetch and spin' from Luke O Connell ended with the Roche corner forward rattling the Cooley net with a blistering shot. This spurred Roche on and only for some inspired goalkeeping from Luke Sheridan between the Cooley sticks, their lead should have been more.

Cooley began to get a foothold in the match and the scores were close at half time with Roche leading 1:05 to 0:04 with a sumptuous Eoin Maguire '45 and a long range Ryan Martin point being the pick of the half's scores.

A good start was critical for both sides in the second half and fortunately it was the Roche lads who were out of the blocks the quickest. A flowing move which started with corner back Jimmy Loughran ended in the hands of DD Reilly. His slaloming mazy run bamboozled the Cooley rearguard and resulted in another green flag being raised. This score deflated Cooley and allowed Roche to power on and tag on more scores.

A great win for the boys with a marvellous display from the defence ably led by inspirational captain Matthew McArdle and netwinder Ozzie Nash.

The forwards had their radar tuned in and punished Cooley regularly with some well taken points.

Final Score: Cooley 0:07 Roche 2:13.

The lads move on and welcome Cuchulainn Gaels to Pairc de Roiste next Monday.