Naomh Padraig Cruise to Victory
Senior Hurling Championship - July 25th 2004
Naomh Padraig 3-16, Na Fianna 2-10

Anyone hoping for a longer senior hurling season in the Bay Area was sorely disappointed to see this best-of-five tournament end so soon at Balboa park today.

The opening fifteen minutes had a scoreline what was more reminiscent of a San Jose Sharks game than a hurling match, but this didn't reflect the intensity of it -- there were just a lot of shots going wide at both ends of the field. Naomh Padraig found themselves on the receiving end of three yellow cards early in the first half, but both teams eventually settled in and started taking their scores. Na Fianna made life very difficult for the men in green, and the lead changed hands on several occasions with never more than a few points of difference. By half time Naomh Padraig had a wafer-thin lead of 1-5 to 0-7.

Padraigs stepped up a gear in the second half with Na Fianna replying in short bursts of valiant play, notably from St Joseph's stalwart Derry Murphy who put in an intense performance in the forwards, helping to set up Cahill Hennesey and later Dave Collins for a pair of goals that lifted the spirits of the team and stopped Naomh Padriag from even thinking about getting complacent. However, the boys from Burlingame had plenty left in the tank, and a goal under their belts courtesy of Robert Ryan. Another goal from Niall Kenny pushed them further into the lead, and approaching the end Na Fianna were only two goals short of tying the game, and there were moments when they looked dangerous enough to pull off a draw.

With their goalkeeper, full backs and half backs all combined into the same player, Na Fianna admirably took the gamble of saturating the Naomh Padraig goalmouth and came tantalisingly close to getting through, but it only took one clearance to send the sliothar back down to the nearly empty end of the field where Naomh Padriag's Liam Head scored the final goal just ahead of the final whistle.

In the end, Naomh Padraig were the more consistent team and thoroughly earned the right to go to the North American finals as divisional winners.