9th December 2022
On Tuesday the 6th of December our 1st year Boys Soccer team opened their West Leinster League Division Two campaign away to Castlepollard Community College.
RCC started the game brightly but unfortunately fell behind early on despite having most of the possession. Regardless of the early setback the team continued to battle and in the fifteenth minute Luke Hayes ran in behind the Castlepollard defence after being played in by Lucas DeSousa. Unfortunately, just as Luke Hayes looked to be in one on one with the keeper, he was pulled down by the Castlepollard defender who subsequently received a red card for the foul. Lucas DeSousa then produced a thunderbolt of a shot from the resulting freekick which rebounded off the post. There was a scramble in the Castlepollard box and Luke Hayes was unfortunate to see his header cannon off the Castlepollard crossbar. RCC finished the first half strongly but failed to get an equaliser and were a goal down at halftime.
In the search of an equaliser in the second half the team were twice hit on the counterattack by Castlepollard who increased their lead to 3. The RCC team never gave up and were awarded with their efforts in the last ten minutes when Jack Lally played Luke Hayes in behind the Castlepollard defence but once again he was brought down by the defender but this time inside the penalty area. Hayes stepped up to take the penalty and buried the ball into the left-hand corner of the net with the goalkeeper rooted to the spot. Jack Lally went close to adding a second RCC goal in the final two minutes when his resulting shot from a corner was cleared off the line. Despite it being a competitive match throughout RCC fell to a 3-1 defeat.
Notable performances from the match were Thomas Hanley and Daniel Monaghan in defence, Luke Hayes, and Lewis Smyth up front and finally man of the match Jack Lally who had a standout performance in central midfield.
Next up for this 1st year team is a home game against Templemichael College of Longford to finish the group. Best of luck to all.
