Lawlor the hero as Emo beat Stradbally in penalty shootout to claim Senior ‘B’ title
Liam Crowley goes on the attack for Emo against Stradbally on Saturday Photo: Denis Byrne
EMO have been crowned the Laois Shopping Centre SFC ‘B’ champions after overcoming Stradbally in a thriller on Saturday night which created history as it was the first penalty shootout that decided a championship match in Laois.
Paul Lawlor was Emo’s hero on the night, he scored 1-3 before he had to go into goals with minutes remaining in normal time as Emo lost Enda Butler to a knee injury and incredibly Lawlor saved Benny Lawlor’s penalty in sudden death to secure the title for Emo.
In a crazy game of football the momentum shifted back and forth and every time a team looked on course to win the game the other team responded which was a theme right throughout the game.
David Donohue got the games first score of the game but Emo through a Paul Lawlor free seen the team’s level.
Fionn McEvoy nudged Stradbally back in front before Emo took control of the rest of the half. Ross Meredith who was terrific throughout added a point from play and just after that Lawlor struck for goal to give Emo the lead 1-2 to 0-2 half way through the half.
Liam Knowles got an important score for Stradbally to reduce the gap to two but it was Emo that finished the half the stronger with Lawlor getting his second point and Paddy Hosey would hit the last two point as Emo led 1-5 to 0-3 at the break.
Cillian Maher got Stradbally under way in the second half but Emo responded yet again through Meredith and Hosey once again.
Stradbally had a huge goal chance in the next play as Eoin Buggie won his side a penalty but Jody Dillon who was only on minutes fired it over the bar.
Lawlor and Dillon would traded points while Stradbally started to get the upper hand. Colm Begley and Conor Goode got two points in a row but Emo through Meredith responded.
Hosey added another and it looked like Emo were going to see out the game, but Emo had other ideas.
Conor Buggie would reignite the Stradbally come back with a well taken goal. Dillon and Benny Lawlor would land two points to draw the team’s level 1-11 to 1-11 as the game headed to extra time.
Sub Tom Shiel put Stradbally in the lead in the opening minutes but yet again emo responded through Hosey and Meredith. Meredith hit the last score of the first half of extra time as Emo led 1-14 to 1-12.
Stradbally then found another gear and would hit four points in a row Benny Lawlor who added three and Conor Buggie added the fourth as the game was slipping from Emo’s reach. But like all game Emo responded through two points from Meredith which resulted in a first penalty shootout in championship football in Laois.
Stradbally scored their first three penalties via Jody Dillon, Benny Lawlor and Eoin Buggie while Darren Strong missed in between efforts from Ross Meredith and Paul Lawlor.
Davy Costello scored, and Liam Knowles saw his effort saved by Lawlor to make it 3-3 but then Nigel Murphy blazed over.
That gave Colm Begley the chance to win it, but his effort went over the bar, and we headed for sudden death.
Dillon and Meredith scored again Strong atoned for his earlier miss with a great effort.
That meant Benny Lawlor had to score but Paul Lawlor guessed the right way and saved it to claim glory.
Ross Meredith 0-7 (0-3fs), Paddy Hosey 0-6, Paul Lawlor 1-3 (0-3fs).
Benny Lawlor 0-4 (0-2fs), Conor Buggie 1-1, Jody Dillon 0-3 (0-1f, 0-1 pen), Fionn McEvoy 0-2, Liam Knowles, Colm Begley, David Donohue, Cillian Maher, Conor Goode and Tom Shiel (f) 0-1 each.
Eoin Butler; Shane Murphy, Eoin Montague, James O’Rourke; Liam Crowley, Darren Strong, Eibhan Joyce; Sean Greene, Brian Gorman; Jack Murphy, Padraig Kirwan, Nigel Murphy; Ross Meredith, Paul Lawlor, Paddy Hosey.
Davy Costello for Kirwan (40m, inj), Ruairi Bourke for B Gorman (45m), David Gorman for Butler (50m, inj).
Darren Maher; Liam Woulfe, Colm Begley, Ben Dillon; Liam Knowles, Eoin Buggie, Damien Murphy; Conor Goode, Jack Deegan; Cathal Buggie, Garry Comerford, David Donohue; David Dineen, Cillian Maher, Fionn McEvoy.
Jody Dillon for Maher (39m), Conor Buggie for Comerford (41m), Benny Lawlor for Dineen (43m), Conor McDonald for Cathal Buggie (45m), Tom Shiel for Donohue (50m), Cathal Buggie for Dillon (65m), David Donohue for McEvoy (68m), James Devoy for Murphy (70m).
Clifford Ward (Portarlington)
