Four goal Ballyfin-Mountrath breeze past Rathdowney/Errill
Ballyfin-Mountrath's Zach McGuinness puts a halt to Rathdowney/Errill's Harry Campion in their U/20HC game Photo: David Maher
Ballyfin-Mountrath 4-13
Rathdowney/Errill 0-13
BALLYFIN-Mountrath got their U-20 campaign of to a winning start by overcoming Rathdowney/Errill in atrocious conditions in Ballyfin on Monday afternoon.
Four goals proved the difference for Ballyfin-Mountrath and also, they had the greater breath of scorers with eight players getting on the scoresheet.
Eoin Bracken got the scoring underway for Rathdowney-Errill to give them an early lead, but the home side responded with three quick points through Ciaran Quinn, Cian Hill and Eoin Brennan all adding scores.
The away side would draw level a couple of minutes later through points from Bracken who was deadly on frees throughout.
Both sides then traded scores through Shane Connolly and Bracken would get another. The first goal of the game came soon after with a goal from Cian Hill for the home side.
Rathdowney-Errill didn’t let it get to them and responded again with two more points from Bracken and Joe Sherman to narrow the gap to a single point.
The home side upped the tempo and would score 2-1 without reply, the goals coming from Mikey Kirwan and Sean Duff as Ballyfin-Mountrath led 3-5 to 0-7 at halftime.
They started the half the stronger and finished the game as a contest within minutes as Connolly added another while Kirwan struck for his second goal and it was all over.
Rathdowney/Errill battled hard and added two points from Gearoid Campion and a Bracken free. Ballyfin-Mountrath then hit another gear and hit 0-6 without reply and they were at their ease.
Connolly added three, Eoin Brennan grabbed a brace and Donnacha Carroll also got a point and now the score was at 4-13 to 0-10.
The away side finished the stronger with three points in a row, Jack Dowling got his second and Bracken got another two, but it was too late as Ballyfin-Mountrath cruised to victory.
SCORERS:
Ballyfin-Mountrath: Mikey Kirwan 2-0, Shane Connolly 0-5, Eoin Brennan 0-4 (0-3 fs, 0-1 65), Cian Hill 1-1, Sean Duff 1-0, Ciaran Quinn, Ronan Carroll and Donnacha Carroll 0-1 each.
Rathdowney/Errill: Eoin Bracken 0-9 (fs), Jack Dowling 0-2, Joe Sherman and Gearoid Campion 0-1 each BALLYFIN-MOUNTRATH: Alex Phelan; Zach McGunness, Kyle Moore, Dylan Kelly; Ben Meade, Donnacha Carroll, Tomas Lynch; Cian Hill, Ciaran Quinn; Eoin Brennan, Shane Connolly, Mikey Kirwan; Ronan Carroll, Mark Cusack, Sean Duff.
Sub: Josh Dempsey for Meade.
RATHDOWNEY/ERRILL: Sean McDermott; Tomas Moore, Oisin Moore, Astin Jordan; Cormac Coleman, Peter Meagher, Cillian Stenson; Gearoid Campion, Oisin Smeaton; Dean Dowling, Joe Sherman, Harry Campion; Eoin Bracken, James Rooney, Jack Dowling.
Sub: Ben Stapleton for T Moore
