Sixmilebridge 4-10 Clarecastle 2-05.

A wild and windy O’Garney park on Saturday afternoon was the venue for this pairing of Sixmilebridge and Clarecastle in the under 15A Championship Semi Final, with the remnants of Storm Brian passing through it was going to make for some tough hurling with scoring very hard to come by as the wind was blowing across the pitch favouring neither side. The opening exchanges were even enough with both sides creating scoring chances but with the elements winning out at both ends of the pitch. Clarecastle however adapted quickest and 7 minutes in Brandon Healy opened the scoring with a super point from a 65. He followed this up with a point from a free a minute later. It was Healy again 10 minutes in, upon winning possession 45 metres out ran toward the ‘Bridge goal and hit a screamer of a shot giving Cian Fawl no chance. The Magpies added two more points in as many minutes to go 1-4 to 0-0 ahead. The ‘Bridge were playing good solid hurling but they weren’t scoring, with their inside forward line being well marshalled by the Clarecastle backs. Then on 15 minutes Dylan Downes won possession in midfield and went on a blistering run down the stand sideline. He hit a dangerous high ball across the Clarecastle full backline where David Kennedy was first to react. He turned and hit it straight into the roof of the net to get the ‘Bridge up and running. This seemed to flick a switch in the ‘Bridge team because for the rest of the half they completely took over all over the pitch. Sean MacNamara scored a point from a free on 17 minutes followed by a cracking point from Matthew Hurley 3 minutes later. MacNamara again scored a similar goal to Clarecastles’ opener when he ran at their goal and buried it on 26 minutes. Evan Murphy finished the first half scoring with two pointed frees to leave the halftime score 2-4 to 1-4 in favour of the ‘Bridge.
They continued in the second half where they left off with Evan Murphy scoring another point 2 minutes in. Five minutes later Sean MacNamara made another good run laying off a nice pass to David Kennedy whose strike at goal was well stopped by Cian Broderick in the Clarecastle goal. However, Evan O’Callaghan got a flick on the rebound to send it to the back of the net. Two more ‘Bridge points were followed by Clarecastle’s second goal when Brandon Healy made another one of several runs at the ‘Bridge goal. His shot was blocked By Cian Fawl but Conor Halpin buried the rebound. It was the start of 10-minute period of dominance for Clarecastle but like the ‘Bridge in the first half they didn’t make it count on the scoreboard. When Luke Keogh scored the fourth goal for the Bridge with 3 minutes left it was all over as a contest.
For Clarecastle Cian Galvin, Samuel Browne, and Brandon Healy were excellent with Healy’s runs a constant thorn in the ‘Bridge defense.
For Sixmilebridge Dylan Downes , Matthew Hurley, Storm Devanney, and Darragh Toomey were outstanding with an incredible workrate that eventually broke down the Clarecastle challenge.
The ‘Bridge now await the winners of the other semi-final between Inagh/Kilnamona V Bodyke/OC Mills which was postponed due to the bad weather.
Sixmilebridge: Cian Fawl, Ferdia O Lionain, Darragh Toomey, Adam O’Sullivan, Colin Kelly, Storm Devanney, Leon Kelly, Evan Murphy(0-3,0-2F), Dylan Downes, Matthew Hurley(0-2), Sean MacNamara(1-4,0-2F), Luke Keogh (1-1), David Kennedy(1-0), Luke O Halloran, Evan O’Callaghan(1-0), Dara Casey, Morgan O’ Connell, Conor Morey, Darren Quinn, Eoin Morby, Scott Kirkland, Noel Flynn, Colm Flynn, Adam Murray, Michael Carey, Edmund O’Grady, James Egan, Cian Gleeson.
Clarecastle: Cian Broderick, Filip Wiechcinski, Evan Dolan, Darragh Keogh, Barry Morrissey, Cian Galvin(0-1F), Bence Benko, Rory O’Connell, Samuel Browne, James Kelly(0-1), Brandon Healy(1-3,0-2F,0-1,65), Patrick Maxwell, Aaron Hayes, Conor Halpin(1-0), John Cullinan.
Referee: Jim Hickey.