Kinvara 1-12 Pearses 0-8. Pearses had a good start to this Junior ‘B’ County Final played yesterday in Loughrea, leading 0-5 to 0-2 after 13 minutes. The game was level 0-5 apiece by the 21st minute before a Gerry Huban goal for Kinvara gave them the lead which they would hold until the final whistle as nothing seemed to go right for Pearses after that good opening spell.
Robbie Donnellan opened the scoring for Pearses from a tight angle inside the first minute. Kinvara landed two points to go in front before Seán Murray, continuing his scoring from wing-back in the Semi-final, levelled the game for Pearses. The next three points of the game came from Pearses, with scores from Niall Skehill (2) and Kealan Beckett making it 0-5 to 0-2. Pearses would not score for 12 minutes, as Kinvara reeled off 1-5. The Huban’s Gerry and David leading the Kinvara charge. The teams exchanged two pointed frees before half time to leave it Kinvara 1-8 Pearses 0-6 at the break.
The second half was low scoring, with just three points from both teams in the third quarter, two from Kinvara. Both sets of forwards were finding it hard to make progress against tight backlines. A Niall Skehill free on the 48th minute would be Pearses’ final score of the game. Pearses pushed hard for a goals and did come close, but just could not find the net. Two more pointed frees from Kinvara sealed their win.
Kinvara had the disappointment of losing the 2014 Junior ‘B’ Final to Clarinbridge. Hopefully, like Kinvara, we can come back from the disappointment of losing this Final to take the title next year.
Pearses: P O’Brien; J Jenkins, P Raftery, A Burke; S Murray (0-1), B Egan, R Carr; K Donnellan, E Lawless; L Morrissey, K Beckett (0-1), N Skehill (0-4); D Burke, A Kilkenny, R Donnellan (0-1). Subs used: C O’Grady (0-1), S Walsh, J Lally, R Skehill. Subs: E Burke, M Walsh, C Lawless, D Lawless.