Pearses 4-8 Ballinderreen 1-4: Report by Martina Donnellan. Pearses U14s dream of advancing in the U14A1 championship was very much alive yesterday evening with a well earned 4-8 to 1-4 win over Ballinderreen on Ballinderreen’s home sod. Although Eddie Mitchell’s side never came close to reaching a level previously seen in the Championship, the entire squad did enough to ground out the win.
Ballinderreen started the game well with three points in the first six minutes, two from play and a free. Pearses soon found their feet in front of goal to score the opening goal. Orin Burke’s line ball was jab lifted by Darragh Roche who sent in a ball across the face of the goal where Ronan Hynes was on hand to tap home from the edge of the square on 9mins. Conor Kelly cleanly fetched the resultant puck out, raced forward and hit off the hurl and over as Pearses never looked behind thereafter. Ollie Laheen raised a white flag after good work from Orin Burke andamp;amp; Ronan Hynes. Darragh Roche then drew a great save from the Ballinderreen man between the posts and while the half clearance fell as far as Cilly Fahey, his dipping shot found the top left corner of the net for a tonic goal on 14mins. Fahey andamp;amp; Kelly combined well to extend the lead as Conor Kelly’s fine effort split the posts. Half time: Pearses 2-3; Ballinderreen 0-3.
On the restart, Roche, Fahey, Burke andamp;amp; Kelly caused plenty of problems for the Ballinderreen defence. Conor Kelly went on one of his trademark runs through the centre, found Anthony Feeney who spotted Roche unmarked. As he bore down on goal he was dragged down and the ref immediately signalled for a penalty. Up stepped Orin who gave the goalie no chance as he blasted to the net for an electric restart. Paddy Kenny then saw his goal bound effort saved as Ballinderreen squandered a great goal scoring opportunity down the other end.
Pearses hit a purple patch with 1-4 in succession, two on the bounce from Cilly Fahey, the pick of them came from a ball he won in the ruck, throttled forward and threw over with the simplest of ease. Harry Mitchell showed great bravery 6mins into the 2nd half as he threw his body on the line to make a smashing save as the goalmouth dust gave rise to an air of smog to half distort the view on a sunny evening. Dara Scarry tagged on another point after Feeney andamp;amp; Roche were involved in the move. Ballinderreen were awarded a 21’ free as Jack Reilly did it Conor Gleeson style but Harry Mitchell was quick off his line to save the shot and Paddy Kenny was well positioned to keep out the rebound. One got the feeling at this stage, it would be Pearses evening.
Ollie Laheen effectively put an end to the game as he got on the end of a move involving Orin Burke and Cilly Fahey and his goal bound effort took a deflection off the goalie’s hurl on its way. The ever willing Ronan Hynes chipped over a fantastic point as Pearses emptied the bench with the introduction of Cathal Hynes, Diarmuid Ryan, Conor Walsh, Padraig Kelly andamp;amp; James Queeney as Jack Reilly roamed out the field away from his full back position. Then a momentary lapse in concentration at the back from Pearses seen Ballinderreen’s substitute find space and time to do what he wanted in front of goal but Conor Kelly appeared out of nowhere to scuff his chance.
With 2 minutes on the clock, Harry Mitchell’s goal was finally breached as Ballinderreen’s No 11 scored after a high lobbing ball was sent into the danger area. Ballinderreen converted a free late on while Diarmuid Ryan pointed in the last puck of the game from close range after Cilly Fahey gathered the ball amid a gang of bodies and spotted him unmarked and calling for the ball in front of goal. This win makes it 4 wins out of 7 and enough to make it to the next stage.
Scorers: Cillian Fahey 1-2; Ollie Laheen 1-1; Ronan Hynes 1-1; Orin Burke 1-0 (Pen); Conor Kelly 0-2; Dara Scarry 0-1; Diarmuid Ryan 0-1.
Panel: Harry Mitchell, Cormac Hillary, Jack Reilly, Dillon Roche, Jonah Donnellan, Conor Kelly, David Walsh, Paddy Kenny, Ronan Hynes, Cillian Fahey, Anthony Feeney, Ollie Laheen, Darragh Roche, Orin Burke, Dara Scarry, Diarmuid Ryan, Cathal Hynes, Conor Walsh, Padraig Kelly, James Queeney.