Portarlington see off Portlaoise to advance to semi-finals
Portarlington's Corey Lyons kicking for a score in their U/20FC win over Portlaoise Photo: David Maher
PORTARLINGTON have booked their place in the Laois Shopping Centre U/20 Football Championship semi-final after edging out Portlaoise in Rathleague on Sunday afternoon in an entertaining affair.
Both teams knew they would need a positive result to reach the semi-final and it was Port that were victors after their third game since Monday night.
They were full value for their win with Hugh Connolly getting the all-important goal midway through the second half to make the difference as Portlaoise failed to claw back the lead that Port opened up.
Portarlington got the scoring underway through a free from Sean Michael Ward in the opening minutes.
The home side responded through Bruno McCormack and Conor O'Callaghan who both scored through placed balls. Both sides traded scores through Ben McCann for Portarlington while O'Callaghan notched another free.
The away side then took over the next eight minutes and would reel four points in a row to open up a three-point gap 0-6 to 0-3.
Bruno McCormack was getting some joy from running at the Portarlington defence and grabbed two points to get the gap back to one.
Corey Lyons then grabbed his first point of the game, but Portlaoise finished the half the better hitting four points without response with Darren Brennan getting a two-pointer free and also registered a 45 while Brochan O'Reilly got the other point and now led going into half time.
Portarlington had most of the possession but went in at half time with work to do with the scores at 0-9 to 0-7 at half time in favour of Portlaoise The away side got off to a brilliant start to the second half with a massive two pointer from Sean Bennett and a free from Lyons and now were back in the lead.
Lyons hit another two frees as they were threatening with every attack they produced. O'Callaghan and Finn Dawson replied for Portlaoise to leave the gap to one point.
Portarlington then hit the killer blow in the 45th minute after a great move up the field ended up with Hugh Connolly and he made no mistake in finding the back of the net.
Cathal Ward then got another point for Portarlington and it looked all over with ten minutes to go.
Darren Brennan hit another two-pointer free, but Portlaoise would need a goal late on to get a draw, but it didn't materialise.
Cathal Ward would get the last score of the game as Portarlington advance to the semi-finals where they will play Killeshin at home.
Corey Lyons 0-4 (0-2fs), Hugh Connolly 1-0, Ben McCann Sean Moran, Sean Michael Ward, Sean Bennett (1 two-pointer) and Cathal Ward 0-2 each.
Darren Brennan (2 two-pointer fs, 0-1 45) Conor O'Callaghan (fs) and Bruno McCormack 0-3 each, Brochan O'Reilly and Finn Dawson 0-1 each.
Adam O'Reilly; Conor Moran, Jordan Downey, Cian Kelly; Matthew O'Sullivan, Hugh Connolly, Cathal Ward; Daniel Stevanov, Hugo Emerson; Corey Lyons, Conor Maher, Sean Michael Ward; Ben McCann, Sean Bennett, Sean Moran.
John Cooney for Emerson (ht), Odhran O'Reilly for McCann (46m), Patrick Murray for Ward (59m).
Cian O'Gorman; Jake Byrne, Sean Powders, Conor Ging; Rory Tully, Ben O'Connor, Finn Dawson; Connor Ragget, Ryan Morrin; Darren Brennan, Liam Conroy, Josh Finn; Bruno McCormack, Brochan O'Reilly, Conor O'Callaghan.
Rio La Cumber for Finn (36m), Davy Delaney for Tully (46m).
Colin Bailey (Mountrath)
