GAA Round-up: Teams end up all-square in hurling showdowns

Hurling League Div 2

Eoin O'Leary

Dunderry...5-9

Navan O'Mahonys...2-18

Dunderry staged a storming comeback to earn a draw with Navan O'Mahonys in this high-scoring, end-to-end Hurling League Div 2 tie.

Dunderry's Evan Nolan helped himself to 3-3 including a last-gasp goal from a penalty that went a long way to rescuing a draw for his team.

Stephen Coogan opened the scoring for Dunderry followed by a free from Conor Leavy before O'Mahonys hit 1-2 on the trot. The hosts only managed two scores from play and went into the dressing a point down.

Navan O'Mahonys came out and blitzed their opponents - scoring 1-7 before Stephen Coogan pointed to stedy the ship for Dunderry.

That was cancelled out by another free to leave the Village trailing The Town, 0-7 to 2 - 12.

Mark Leavy hit the net, but yet again O Mahonys had an instant reply with 2 points from play.

Evan Nolan rattled the net when he pulled on a ball that came loose.

Points were traded either end and when Daire O'Driscoll took a pass from Mark Leavy the green flag was raised for the third time.

Once again O'Mahonys had the answer with a brace of points to leave the score board reading 3-9 to 2 - 18.

The black and whites wouldn't lie down however and set up camp in the Navan O'Mahonys goalmouth.

Evan Nolan left it a one score game when he drilled passed the O'Mahonys' goalkeeper. Navan had no response this time however. Nolan converted a penalty to draw the game and Dunderry redeemed themselves.

In a game where hard knocks were given and taken it was the 'never give up' attitude that won a share of the spoils for Dunderry.

Best for Dunderry were Brady, Ó Laoire, Liam Coogan, Conor Leavy, Stephen Coogan, O Driscoll and hatrick scoring Nolan.

Dunderry - Jack Fagan; Darragh Fay, Rónán Brady, Cian Coogan; Níall Ó Laoire, Jamie Leavy, Liam Coogan; Conor Leavy (0-3, two frees), Conor Sheridan; Evan Nolan (3-3, one penalty three frees), Daire O'Driscoll (1-0), Tadhg Dowd; Mark Leavy (1-1), Stephen Coogan (0-2), Rian Fay. Subs - Fionn Mc Hale for Rian Fay, William Tracey for Dowd.

O'MAHONYS' REPORT

Colin O'Brien

Thursday evening saw the first team hurlers travel to Dunderry to face the team top in the league.

Dunderry were first to get off the mark, scoring two points in quick succession in the opening five minutes.

O’Mahonys first score of the match came from a Cormac Keyes free. Three minutes later, Finn Malone found the back of the net. Keyes followed this up with another point, this time from play.

The next fifteen minutes saw a quiet enough spell from O’Mahonys in which Dunderry managed to score a further three points.

From an O’Mahonys perspective, highlights in this quarter included some great defensive work from Ben McEntaggart and Cormac O’Shea, with goalkeeper John Foley pulling off a brilliant save.

A great score from play by Evan Brady was the final O’Mahonys score of the half. At half time the bare minimum separated the teams.

At the break O'Mahonys led 1-4 to 0-6.

O’Mahonys got out of the blocks stronger in the second half despite losing Cormac Keyes and Conor Dwyer at half-time.

This saw the introduction of Jack Flynn and Peter McLoughlin. Malone, Seán McDermott and two Jack Walsh frees saw the O’Mahonys lead extend to 5 points. Seven minutes into the half, some brilliant team-work saw Malone raise the green flag. Walsh and Malone exchanged points in the following two minutes and Flynn added his name to the scoresheet.

Dunderry found their way into the game again scoring two points. The next five minutes saw the teams exchange scores multiple times; a Walsh 65’ followed by a Dunderry goal, a McDermott point and a great point from centre-back; Sam Formosa. Dunderry found the back of the net again, although a Walsh free kept O'Mahonys ahead by seven with ten minutes of ordinary time to play.

Both teams raised white flags in the next eight minutes with Malone responsible for the O’Mahonys score. Despite some excellent initial defending from Dermot McKenna and Thomas Cully, and Michael Reavey, Dunderry were able to raise another green flag.

A Walsh free meant that at the end of normal time, O’Mahonys were five points ahead. This was added to by a Jack McConnell point a minute into injury time.

Despite many players helping out defensively including Eoghan Nugent, Walsh and Brady, two late Dunderry goals saw the final score at 2-18 to 5-9.

O’Mahonys - John Foley, Thomas Cully, Ben McEntaggart, Michael Reavey, Cormac O’Shea, Sam Formosa (0-01), Dermot McKenna, Jack McConnell (0-01), Evan Brady (0-01), Jack Walsh (0-6, 1f, 1 65’), Eoghan Nugent, Cormac Keyes (0-03, 2f), Finn Malone (2-03), Conor Dwyer, Seán McDermott (0-02)

Subs - Jack Flynn (0-01) for Keyes, Peter McLoughlin for Dwyer (both half time)

Kilmessan...0-18

Kiltale...0-18

Having only meet a few weeks ago in Brendan Davis Cup both sides were eagerly seeking a win in this encounter played at Kilmessan on Thursday evening.

Kilmessan started with a few changes, and from start were under pressure.

They were three points down from play before Luke Horan popped over two frees.

Kiltale continued to register scores from play but in the Kilmessan defence players such as Cian O'Sullivan, Shane Brennan, Chris Greene, Noah Conroy, Kris and Alex Smyth worked hard while Luke Horan kept Kilmessan in game with his free-taking. Jack Cottell was only the other Kilmessan scorer in the opening half. At the break Kilmessan were 0-7 to 0-12.

In the second-half Luke Horan continued to rack up the scores for Kilmessan and he showed tremendous composure to slot over a late, late free to earn his side a draw. Horan finished with 12 points, 10 frees.

Kilmessan - Stephen Clynch, Cian O Sullivan, Shane Brennan, Chris Greene, Noah Conroy, Kris Gorman (0-1), Alex Smyth , Eoin Harkin, Peter Farrell, Darragh Horan, Joey Keena, Luke Horan 0-12 (10 frees), Conor Gorman,Mark Horan (0-2), Jack Cottell (0-2). Subs - Jake Harlin (0-1) -for C Gorman, Cathal Burke for Farrell, P Maguire for Greene.

Report - Ian Fitzsimons