Pearses 2-20 Ardrahan 1-17: Pearses have two wins from two in Senior Championship Group B following their defeat of Ardrahan in Kenny Park, Athenry last Saturday evening. With Colm Raftery and Emmet Ward in fine form, Pearses led 1-9 to 0-8 at the break. Ardrahan fought back to level it soon after the restart, but 1-4 from the men in black and white gave them a lead they maintained until the final whistle.
The first quarter was finely balanced, the lead exchanging hands twice. Raftery (2), Ward (2), Tomás Flannery and Ronan Bellew points seen Pearses lead 0-6 to 0-4 after 16 minutes. Then Flannery gathered a long delivery to net the game’s first goal, putting Pearses five up. Ardrahan showed their character to hit the next four points, cutting the deficit back to one. Again the momentum switched and points from Bellew, a Jimmy Gelston sideline and Gary Lally seen Pearses go in four to the good.
Bellew extended Pearses’ lead on the resumption before Cormac Diviney goaled for Ardrahan. Bellew pointed again, but three on the trot for the South Galway team culminated in Gerry Hennelly levelling the game 1-11 apiece after nine minutes of the second half. With Cyril Donnellan and Johnny Glynn battling it out on the forty it was set up for an exciting finish.
Three Pearses points put them three in front again, before Gary Lally kicked to the net to make it 2-14 to 1-11. Emmet Ward sent over his fourth point of the game to extend the lead to seven. However, not for the first time in this game, Ardrahan hit back. Iarla Tannian (3) and Maurice Callanan points reeled in Pearses again, 2-15 to 1-15. Pearses finished well, repelling some determined Ardrahan attacks and outscoring them 0-4 to 0-1 in the closing stages to record another valuable win.
Pearses go into Round 3 of the group in June as table toppers. They face County Champions Gort, just one point behind, so will have it all to do again. Games against Athenry and Kiltormer will follow later in the Summer with the top two teams in the Group going through to the Quarter-Finals.
Pearses: F Flannery; T McDonagh, T Kenny, R Lally; A Bellew, D Wynne, K Hardiman; C Donnellan, C Raftery (0-3); R Bellew (0-6), J Gelston (0-2), T Flannery (1-3); G Lally (1-1), E Ward (0-4), N Skehill. Sub used: A Kilkenny (0-1).