Early goals set Éire Óg Corra Choill on their way
Éire Óg Corra Choill's Liam Dempsey is tackled by behind by Confey's Anto Hoare Photo: Sean Brilly
Three goals inside the first twenty minutes helped Éire Óg Corra Choill to a vital ten-point win over Confey in the UPMC Senior A Hurling Championship on Saturday afternoon in Manguard Park.
It was a result which drew the Donore men level with their opponents on two points after two round robin games in Group A with both sides still in the running to qualify for the knock-out stages.
Oisín Lynch opened the scoring for Confey in the opening minute, but Cian O’Reilly hit back with a scrambled finish to the net for Éire Óg Corra Choill from a Cormac Byrne cross.
Frank Bass (’65) and Jack Higgins swapped points before Confey edged a point ahead (0-5 to 1-1) through points from Kieran Kilbane, Bass and Eoin Lynch from play.
Éire Óg levelled through a Scott Cramer point before they netted their second goal on fourteen minutes after Cramer and O’Reilly exchanged crisp stick passes with the latter finishing for his second major.
After a Bass free, the Éire Óg men were back for a third goal and it was O’Reilly and Cramer who combined again, with Cramer doing well to catch a difficult pass before blasting to the roof of Ian Baker’s net.
That made it 3-2 to 0-6 but Confey finished the half strong and points from Oisín Lynch, Bass and Paul Divilly, with one in reply from Higgins, left them only three points behind at the interval despite the concession of those three goals.
Half-Time: EOCC 3-3 Confey 0-9.
With Éire Óg starting the second half with points from Liam Dempsey (free) and Higgins, it always looked as if Confey would need at least one goal and it never looked likely, despite the best efforts of the likes of Neil Ryan and Oisín Lynch.
Still, they were only six points behind (3-10 to 0-13) with ten minutes remaining but when Paul Divilly mishit a goal attempt from a 20-metre free that gave Éire Óg the impetus to register the last four points of the game with Higgins in particular very impressive in moving onto the five points mark, all from play.
Alo Hackett; Daniel Murray, Michael Begley, Adam Delmer; Pádraic Cribbin, James Dolan 0-1, Kevin Connor; Gary Johnson 0-2, Cormac Byrne; Liam Dempsey 0-3 (3fs), Jack Higgins 0-5, Scott Cramer 1-2; Pa Freeman, Paul Dolan, Cian O’Reilly 2-0. SUBS: Niall Cramer for Connor 11, Seán O’Neill 0-1 for Freeman HT, Billy Brennan for P Dolan 58.
Ian Baker; Sean Leamy, Aidan Ryan, Anto Hoare; Colm Chan, Philip Quigley, Kieran Kilbane 0-1; Oisín Lynch 0-2, Paul Divilly 0-3 (2fs,1’65); Eoin Lynch 0-1, Frank Bass 0-5 (2fs,1’65), Enda Bannon; Brian Grimes, Niall Glennon, Neil Ryan 0-1. SUBS: Aiden Crean for Grimes 42, Kevin Chan for E Lynch 49, Paul Feerick for Glennon 56.
Billy O’Connell
