Wins for Killyon and Kildalkey

After drawing their opening two games of the SHC Killyon finally made it into the winners enclosure as they defeated Kilmessan 1-17 to 0-16 in Pairc Tailteann this evening. Kildalkey defeated Navan O'Mahonys 0-22 to 1-13 after a Titanic struggle in the evening's other game at HQ.

The shootout between Steven Clynch and Keith Keoghan in the Kilmessan v Killyon game got underway within 40 seconds when the Killyon man opened the scoring. The next four points went Kilmessan’s way with Clynch converting three frees, one from over 90 metres, and Sean Doyle also finding his range to make it 0-4 to 0-1 after 10 minutes.
Ray Massey stopped the rot with a fine score, but Clynch’s unerring accuracy restored Kilmessan’s cushion at the end of the first quarter.
A second free from Keoghan was followed with an exchange of scores between Doyle and David Raleigh as Kilmessan led 0-6 to 0-4, but that advantage was stretched to four points with Clynch converting a '65’ and adding his second from play.
Two more Keoghan points either side of a fine score from Eoin Marsh closed the gap to three before points from Mal Doyle and Clynch ('65’) either side of another Keoghan free made it 0-11 to 0-7.
Killyon finished the half on the front foot with Keoghan’s sixth point, fourth from a free, and an excellent score from Clayton Keegan closing the gap to 0-9 to 0-11 at half-time.
Kilmessan extended their lead with a Marty Mulhall point within 30 seconds of the restart, but then came Kelly’s blistering low drive to the bottom right hand corner of the net. Clynch responded with a free to restore Kilmessan’s lead, but two Keoghan frees gave Killyon the lead for the first time since the opening seconds, 1-11 to 0-13.
The outstanding Clynch converted another free and a '65 to bring his tally to 10 points and edge Kilmessan 0-15 to 1-11 clear at the three-quarters stage, but then they ran out of legs and ideas.
Gannon and Thomas Raleigh clipped Killyon into the lead again and even though the impressive Sean Doyle responded with his third point to level it up again it was all Killyon in the closing stages.
Keoghan missed a couple of late frees, but he did find his range with two frees and a '65’ while Kelly and Massey were also on target to wrap up the win.

 

In the first game on the bill between Kildalkey and O'Mahonys it was always likely there would be an early free and it took a matter of seconds before Dermot McKenna fouled David Harmon and Conor Kearney converted.

A minute later Kearney doubled Kildalkey’s lead after Paddy Conneely was fouled and the high scoring rate continued as O’Mahonys hit back with Shane Crosby kicking over the bar after missing his initial strike.
Conneely restored Kildalkey’s two-point cushion, but the accuracy of Jack Walsh from frees and the elusiveness of Kelly and Barry McEvoy saw O’Mahonys lead for the first time in the ninth minute, 0-4 to 0-3.
Another Kearney free was cancelled out by a second from Kelly, but an excellent score from Kearney and superb accuracy from Conneely pushed Kildalkey ahead again briefly before that lead was wiped out by another Walsh free.
The Kearney-Conneely double act came up trumps again to make it 0-8 to 0-6 for Kildalkey, but two huge frees from Walsh, one from half-way and one from close to his own 45-metre line, had the sides level for the sixth time in the 17th minute, 0-8 each.
Two more frees from Walsh, the second from over 100 metres, pushed O’Mahonys two clear for the first time, but Kildalkey responded with a Conneely point leaving them just 0-9 to 0-10 adrift at the break despite playing into a strong wind.
Patrick Pottertion restored parity within seconds of the restart, but again O’Mahonys proved they wouldn’t go away with David Quirke restoring their narrow advantage.
Four points in five minutes from Sean Heavey (two), Kearney and David Harmon gave Kildalkey a cushion as they threatened to pull clear, but O’Mahonys were game. Two more frees from Walsh were followed by Kelly’s sparkling goal, but they failed to score again as Kildalkey assumed control.
Kearney and Gary Watters levelled it up for the eighth time in the 50th minute and seconds later Mairtin Doran gave Kildalkey a 0-17 to 1-13 lead.
David Dillon thought he had a goal for O’Mahonys, but his effort was ruled out for a square ball and in the closing eigh minutes Kildalkey put the finishing touches to their victory with Padraig Geoghegan, Padraig Keogh, Gary Kelly, Kearney (free) and Andrew Fagan all on target to keep Kildalkey on track for a knockout spot.