Owenmore Gaels 4-7 Enniscrone/Kilglass 1-8
The senior lads got their first league win of the year at Connolly Park on Monday with an impressive showing against Enniscrone/Kilglass.
Enniscrone/Kilglass opened the scoring from a placed ball before we equalised through a Brian Mahon point. Ryan Philips quickly put us in front, pointing after been fed by Gary Anderson who had picked up a ball broken by Tommy Trill in the middle. In the next passage of play Trill showed great determination to turnover an Enniscrone/Kilglass attack. Gary Anderson and Conor Davey combined to put Colin Smith in on goal and he made no mistake with the finish to raise a green flag.
Mahon then finished off a great team move involving Oisin Geraghty, Aaron Walsh and Smith. Two more followed. Philips got his second after Mahon pierced the Enniscrone/Kilglass cover before Geraghty finished of a patient attack involving a number of players with his left boot to underline our superiority.
Enniscrone/Kilglass responded with two converted frees as they looked to play themselves back into the game. It was only a temporary reprieve however. Smith fisted a point closely followed by our second goal, coming from the boot of Philips after he combined again with Mahon. After Trill won another ball in midfield it resulted in Smith beating his man on the endline and drawing the keeper. He squared for Philips to smash his second to the net. A shellshocked Enniscrone/Kilglass side managed a point before half time but we took a commanding lead of 3-6 0-4 in at half time.
In the second half we controlled the game, however a number of wides meant Enniscrone/Kilglass managed to close the gap. We held the ball well and when James Duffy followed in on a blocked shot to goal on 50 mins we were nearly home. We defended the high ball manfully and restricted the opposition to 1-4 in the second period, Jason Farrell pulling off two fine saves to extinguish any hopes of a comeback. Geraghty finished off the days scoring, again off his left side, to leave us comfortable 8 point winners in the end.
This was a hugely important win for the team as defeat in this game would have left us in a precarious position. We return to Benson Cup duty next week when we play Easkey in Scarden at 7pm in the semi-finals.
Team: Jason Farrell, Garrett Lavin, Pa Murphy, Roan Conneely, Cian Whiteside (Peter Wynne), Brian Mahon (0-2), Aaron Walsh, Tommy Trill, James Duffy (1-0) (Simon Cashman), Gary Anderson, Oisin Geraghty (0-2) Conor Davey (Stanley Harte), Ryan Philips (2-2) (Stephen Fallon), Colin Smith (1-1) Roly Anderson. Subs: Adrian Egan, Kevin Healy, Gavin Phelan, Ronan Sweeney, Kyle Taheny, Callum Tonry, Ross Trill, Michael Casey