Talented Corrib boys make a splash

THE Corrib Water Polo Club U14 A team won the Irish National Cup held in the Kingfisher NUIG Sports Complex last weekend. In a statement of the strength of the club at under-age level, the Corrib U14 B team also made the semi-final stages.

This added to the club’s achievements this year as Corrib retained the U16 Cup and the Senior team have just claimed the National League Division Two title.

Corrib A had comprehensive victories in the group stages over North Dublin and Newry. Corrib B lost to Drogheda but had a great win over Clonard from Belfast which saw them through to the quarter-final stages.

Corrib A met Grads of Belfast in their quarter final and again had a comprehensive victory. Ross McDonagh was proving himself to be an outstanding goalkeeper and his pass-outs had to be seen to be believed – consistent inch-perfect passes from the hand to players on the break at the far end of the pool led to a large number of goals.

Conor Treacy also made a huge impact scoring from the hole with captain Bill Jennings covering an immense amount of the pool.The B team played Clontarf in their knock out match and led 3-0 after the first quarter thanks to great goals from Jack Fegan and Mark Moran with support play by Andrew Moore and Jack Moreton.

However Clontarf brought the game back to 4-3 before Corrib B replied with another goal and closed out the game 5-4 with Philip Downes pulling off some great saves in goals in the last quarter. This victory set up an all Corrib semi-final with Corrib A playing Corrib B.

In the other side of the draw, arch-rivals St Vincents from Dublin progressed along with Tribes, also from Galway, which set up the semi-finals with three out of the four teams from Galway.

Corrib B and Tribes gave good displays in the semi-finals but Corrib A and St Vincent’s proved too strong,setting up yet another Corrib vs St Vincents Junior Cup final.

Corrib had a great start leading 3-0 after the first quarter with goals from captain Bill Jennings, Ronan Sweeney and Conor Treacy. St Vincents staged a rally in the third quarter but never really matched the strength and depth of the Corrib team.

Ross McDonagh was again excellent in goals and Jonathan Regan, Evan Naughton and Joseph Tummons made strong contributions. Lorcan Gavin came on to score a superb individual goal with Thomas O’Connor and Peter Crotty also featuring. By the final whistle, Corrib had won 10-4 to claim the Cup over St Vincents.

Corrib B: P. Downes, J. Fegan, J. Moreton, F. Amaya, A. Moore, M. Moran, M. Murphy, C. McDonagh, R. Murphy, J. Tormey, J. Ritter, M. Conneely.