Sixmilebridge 2-05 Scarriff/Ogonnelloe 2-09

Sixmilebridge hosted Scariff/Ogonnelloe last Friday evening for round 5 of the U14A Championship. Before the match, Players and supporters observed a minute’s silence in memory of the late Conor Wilmot, who attended Sixmilebridge NS with most of the players on the U14 squad. On behalf of everyone involved in Sixmilebridge GAA we extend our deepest sympathies to his family at this heart-wrenching time, RIP Conor.

The weather on the evening was calm but with a light drizzle of rain throughout which made for slippery conditions and several ball handling errors. Both sides were evenly matched for the first 8 minutes with both sets of defenses on top. Sixmilebridge opened the scoring in the 9th minute thanks to an Evan Murphy 65 followed a minute later by another Murphy point from play after a lovely pass from Scott Kirkland.

Scariff/Ogonnelloe got their account open in the 11th minute from a Patrick Crotty point and he followed this up 3 minutes later with another. Both sides had points from frees before Noel Flynn finished a Cian Gleeson out field pass to the back of the net in the 23rd minute. Conor Murphy came on for Seamus O Connell in the 24th minute. The rest of the half Scariff dominated proceedings with some lovely displays of hurling and were rewarded with three unanswered points all from play from Shane Kavanagh and Patrick Crotty to leave the side’s level at half time on a score line of 1-3 to 0-6.

The second half began with O’Connell now back on to replace Luke O’Halloran who was carrying a muscle injury. Scariff/Ogonnelloe started the second half where they had left off and went ahead for the first time 5 minutes in when Patrick Crotty scored from a free. David Kennedy replied in kind for the Bridge two minutes later, but after that Scariff/Ogonnelloe completely took over the game, with their work rate, first touch, and most importantly their ability to play as a team.

The Bridge had no answer as Shane Kavanagh cut through their defense and scored two goals in the 14th and 18th minutes followed up by two Patrick Crotty frees.  Luke O’ Halloran who was now back on in place of Conor Murphy got a consolation goal in the 27th minute but the damage had been done. Scariff/Ogonnelloe went on to win by 4 points but it could have been more such was their dominance.

For Scariff/Ogonnelloe, Patrick Crotty ,Shane Kavanagh, Gearoid Sheedy, Keelan Hartigan, and full back Evan wood were very strong and controlled the game for long periods.

For Sixmilebridge Scott Kirkland and Adam Murray were prominent but if they needed reminding, the squad got a wakeup call about the competitive nature of this Championship.

Scoring 2-01 from play in 60 minutes of hurling will win very few matches for any team.

Next week the ‘Bridge will complete their 6 group games with a challenging assignment in Killanena, against the hosts Feakle/Killanena. The ‘Bridge will be looking for a win to guarantee a home draw in the Championship semi-final.

Sixmilebridge: Cian Fawl, Michael Carey, Evan O’Callaghan, Morgan O’Connell, Scott Kirkland, Colin Kelly, Adam Murray, David Kennedy (0-1F), Evan Murphy (0-4, 2F), Colm Flynn, Seamus O’Connell, Cian Gleeson, Dara Casey, Luke O’Halloran (1-0) Noel Flynn (1-0). Subs: Conor Murphy for Seamus O’Connell, Seamus O’Connell for Luke O’Halloran, Oran Carey, Jack Hughes, Calum Desmond Lynch, Coby McDonald,

Scariff/Ogonnelloe: Sean Treacy, Sean Collins, Evan Wood, Aaron Collins, Scott Cairns, Gearoid Sheedy, Cian Myles, Pierce Mooney, Donnacha McNulty, Patrick Crotty (0-8,0-3f), Paul Magee, Shane Kavanagh (2-1), Eoghan Heffernan, Jack Ryan, Rossa Keehan, Keelan Hartigan, Rory Ryan Mikey Doyle.