Brilliant Brennan the star as St Lazarian’s advance to semi-final
Jill Gaughan battles hard to win possession for St Lazarian's Photo: David Maher
St Lazarian's are through to the Leinster Junior Camogie Semi-Final after overcoming St Laurence's of Kildare in Abbeyleix on Saturday afternoon.
Holly Brennan and Kaylee O'Keefe produced stunning performances which went a long way to their victory.
They did own possession for much of this contest and probably should of won by more but they won't mind as their Leinster campaign continues.
The home side started the better with points from Holly Brennan and Kaylee O'Keefe but the away side immediately responded with two points of their own through Aoife Fennor and Deirbhille Byrne to level up matters.
Laoise Dunne regained St Lazarian's lead through a fine point from play but St Laurence's weren't going away and registered two more points to go into the lead for the first time.
The points coming from Byrne and Aoibheann O'Sullivan. Both sides then traded scores through Brennan and Byrne.
St Lazarian's then got the first goal of the game in the 29th minute through Holly Brennan to extend the lead to two points but Aoife Fennor added the last point to leave the scores at 1-4 to 0-6 at the break to the home side.
The home side came storming out of the blocks in the second half and hit four points in a row with Brennan getting two while Kaylee O'Mara and and Katie Dunican adding points.
But for all their dominance St Laurence's were still in the game and would strike for their first goal of the game as they decided to go direct and launch long balls into the box.
It worked a treat as Byrne got on the end of one and got their first goal of the game to leave the gap at two.
But Lazarian's response was a brilliant one as they went straight down the pitch and got their second goal after a great finish from O'Mara.
It looked like they were going to push on and win easily, but yet again the Kildare side found the net through another long ball which was bundled into the net by Megan Alcock.
Again, Lazarian's would respond straight away with their third goal after Kaylee O'Keefe made an unbelievable pass to Brennan and she made no mistake in finding the net with only five minutes left on the clock.
O'Keefe would then add two more points to her tally before a Jen Keane goal for St Laurence's from another long ball, but Lazarian's held out for victory.
Holly Brennan 2-4 (0-3fs), Kaylee O'Keefe 0-4 (0-2fs), Kaylah O'Mara 1-1, Katie Dunican 0-1.
Deirbhille Byrne 1-3, Jen Keane and Megan Alcock 1-0 each, Aoife Fennor 0-2, Aoibheann O'Sullivan 0-1.
Grace Fox; Emma Cass, Clodagh Gee, Sasha O'Keefe; Kate Kenna, Rachel Cass, Maeve Dowling; Roisin Fitzgearld, Jill Gaughan; Kaylee O'Keefe, Kaylah O'Mara, Claire Daly; Holly Brennan, Katie Dunican, Laoise Dunne.
Katie Doyle for Daly (37m), Carragh Concannon for Dunne (48m).
Mel Treacy; Katie Kelly, Katie Danes, Abigail Finnegan; Roisin Behan, Caoimhe O'Sullivan, Reitin Donnelly; Grace Nolan, Amy Cullen; Ciara Dempsey, Emily Singleton, Aoife Fennor; Aoibheann O'Sullivan, Deirbhille Byrne, Kate Whelan.
Meadhbh Behan for Whelan (36m), Jen Keane for Singleton (40m), Megan Alcock for Dempsey (42m) Referee: Simon Redmond
