Pearses 5-8; Skehana-Mountbellew-Moylough 2-4: Report by Martina Donnellan. A spirited Pearses performance was enough to deny the newly formed Skehana-Mountbellew-Moylough side a win in the opening round of the U13B championship in Skehana this evening. A more classy and clinical Pearses outfit led from the starting gun to the finish-line tape to end emphatic winners.
Played in perfect conditions both sides knew each other fairly well and shared seven goals in a clash that produced some brilliant individual performances, some great block-downs and superb aerial ability. Pearses raised the first white flag within seconds of the throw-in as Darragh Roche fired over after a long delivery involving Jonah Donnellan, Cillian Fahy and Anthony Feeney who released to Roche who made the score look easy. Fahy was on target with his first point of the evening after Jonah Donnellan burst through the middle and hand passed to him.
Cillian Fahy’s first cousin, Micháel Ryan, togged for the black and amber lads tapped over a lovely point in Ske-Bellew’s first scoring chance. Cilian Fahy raised the first green flag in a whopper of a goal originated from an Orin Burke free played into Ronnie Hynes in the corner and his hand pass found Fahy who made no mistake on his first time of asking as Aidan Hansberry had no chance in goal. Donnellan set up Fahy for his second point from play.
As Ske-Bellew applied some pressure towards the latter stages of the first half, Jack Reilly was on hand to whip a dangerous high lobbing ball from the danger area. Micháel Ryan scored his 2nd point for the hosts to help claw back the lead. Then Jason Rabbitte helped Pearses find their rhythm as he whipped to the net with a first time ground stroke after good work from Anthony Feeney andamp;amp; Fahy to propel Pearses well in front by half time on a scoreline: Pearses 2-3; Skehana/Mountbellew 0-2.
Both teams traded scores early in the 2nd half. Jason Rabbitte with an exceptional long range point after a clean fetch from Orin Burke in midfield and cross-field pass to Rabbitte and Skehana/Mounbellew from a free. Rabbitte converted a free after a chop down on himself. It got even worse for the hosts as Jason Rabbitte scored a tonic goal with a high lobbing ball which evaded the goalie while Micháel Ryan was marginally wide at the opposite end with goal on his mind.
Conor Hillary’s lovely pick up was laid off to Orin Burke who sent in a long delivery over the defence for Rabbitte to run on to and as he left the defence for dead he made light work of his point when he could have easily raised a green flag instead. In the next run of play though, Rabbitte raised the green flag as he goaled direct from a placed ball after the hard working Anthony Feeney was fouled while mid-way through the half Micháel Ryan offered the hosts a life-line when he kicked to the net in a real poachers type goal to peg the score back: 4-6 to 1-3.
Darragh Roche restored the scoreline soon after when he connected beautifully to a massive Paddy Kenny clearance and finished emphatically to the net to end the match as a contest. Orin Burke was rewarded for his top-class performance of the evening with a lovely point as he latched on to a loose ball and weaved himself into a scoring position to extend the daylight.
Finian Murray capitalised on a failed Pearses clearance in defence and bulleted to the net to put a bit more gloss on the host’s scoreline. Orin Burke then caught a line ball from Skehana-Mounbellew and his long delivery found Darragh Roche who tapped over easily. A combined effort of David Walsh, Conor Kelly andamp;amp; Anthony Feeney stopped Micháel Ryan in his tracks as he was powering through on goal. The hosts had the final say as they tapped over a free on the stroke of full time.
So in all, a great evening’s work in their first U13 outing as Craughwell await next Monday evening in Ballymacward.
Scorers: Jason Rabbitte 3-3 (1-1f); Darragh Roche 1-2; Cillian Fahy 1-2; Orin Burke 0-1.
Panel: Harry Mitchell, Conor Hillary, Conor Kelly, Oliver Laheen, Cormac Hillary, Paddy Kenny, Jack Reilly, Orin Burke, Jonah Donnellan, Ronan Hynes, Anthony Feeney, Darragh Roche, Dara Scarry, Jason Rabbitte, Cillian Fahy, David Walsh, Diarmuid Ryan, Cathal Hynes, Ross Lally, Jamie Nutley, James Queeney, Dillon Roche, Patrick O’Neill.