On a very busy day for Mayo GAA teams, the first team to go into action is the U21 hurlers who take on Kildare in the All Ireland U21B Hurling Championship quarterfinal at 1pm tomorrow in St Conleth's Park in Newbridge.
Mayo claimed the Connacht U21B title last Thursday night when they saw off the challenge of a poor Roscommon outfit in MacHale Park by 18 points. They were led by Castlebar Mitchels' Cory Scahill who hit nine points over the hour to power Mayo home to victory. Scahill is one of five men who have already tasted All Ireland success with the Mayo hurlers who won the Nicky Rackard Cup earlier this summer, with Fergal Boland who chipped in with two points, David Kenny, David Harrision, and Sean Mulroy all part of JP Coen's Rackard winning squad.
Also doing damage on the scoreboard for Mayo against Roscommon were full forward Abbi Abbasi and midfielder Brian Peoples who finished the day with 1-3 each to their name in the Connacht final, while Ballyhaunis' Jason Coyne scored the other three pointer for Mayo 10 minutes into that encounter. Roscommon kept pace with Mayo as well as they could going in trailing 1-7 to 0-5 at the break, but in an early second half flurry Mayo hit 10 out of 12 points to seal the win and claim the title for Mayo.
Tomorrow's game promises to be a much tougher encounter for Mayo who will be looking to book a semi-final spot in the competition and extend a successful summer of hurling for the county sides for another few weeks at least.
