Pearses 2-09; Loughrea 0-3: Pearses U13’s had their first outing in the Championship this evening when they took on Loughrea in St. Kerrill’s Park, Gurteen. Basking in the glow of both the sun and a super win, Pearses were by far the stronger side and relied on raw goal and points power to see them through with goals in each half from Darragh Roche and Peter O’Neill which put them in cruise control to finish on a 2-09 to 0-3 scoreline.
Pearses got off to a blistering start and had 1-3 on the scoreboard before Loughrea registered their first point. Conor Moran pointed within a minute while Darragh Roche scored a bullet of a goal which the keeper got a touch to but the power of the shot carried the sliotar over the line. Ronan Hynes scored the first of his 3 points when he gathered a lovely cross field pass from Conor Moran; Peter O’Neill who was on fire for the evening registered Pearses next point when he collected a spilled ball in a goal mouth shemozzle to fire over from close range.
Loughrea responded with a lovely point from play from an awkward angle almost on the sideline. Pearses scored the next 3 points of the first half without reply. Ronan Hynes with much work to do pointed from play; Peter O’Neill tapped over from close range and Ronan Hynes again, this time weaved through the Loughrea defence before splitting the posts to leave the score 1-6 to 0-1 at half time. Early in the 2nd half Pearses stole the march on Loughrea as they tacked on another 3 points from Darragh Roche, Anthony Feeney through a free and Jonah Donnellan before Loughrea scored their 2nd point when they landed a free.
Peter O’Neill helped propel Pearses further in front when his high lobbing ball evaded the keeper to find the net and then right at the death Loughrea were awarded a penalty and although the penalty taker tried to find the top of the net, he drove just over the crossbar but Pearses were well on their way to victory by then.
Scorers: Peter O’Neill 1-2; Ronan Hynes 0-3; Darragh Roche 1-1; Conor Moran 0-1; Jonah Donnellan 0-1; Anthony Feeney 0-1 (free). Panel: Harry Mitchell, Eanna Cunniffe, Oisin Donohue, Conor Kelly, Jack Reilly, Mark Donnellan, Cormac Hillary, Anthony Feeney, Conor Moran, Darragh Roche, Peter O’Neill, Paddy Kenny, David Egan, Ronan Hynes, Dara Scarry, Jonah Donnellan, Dylan Roche, Conor Hillary, Conall Flynn.