U-14s v Ballintubber– Div 3 Final – Match Report
Davitts captured the County U-14 Div 3 League title with a 3-7 to 1-9 victory over Ballintubber on Thursday evening in Hollymount. It was a game that could have gone either way and was fought out with a great intensity throughout giving the large crowd real value for money.
Ballintubber started well and had shot two early points before the alert Dylan Gormally opened Davitts account with a well taken goal in the fourth minute. Four minutes later, Davitts caught the Ballintubber defence napping when Sean Keadin passed a quick free in to the imposing Harry Fallon who lashed the ball to the Tubber net. Ballintubber rallied, pointing a minute later, but they were finding it hard to make inroads through an impressive Davitts defence and their shooting was not as sharp as they would have liked.
Dylan Gallagher extended Davitts lead to four with a well taken point in the thirteenth minute. Amazingly there was only one other score in the first half, a well taken 20th minute goal from the impressive Fionn McLoughlin for Davitts, leaving his side ahead by 3-1 to 0-3 at the break.
It was Davitts who flew out of the blocks in the second half shooting four quality points in the opening five minutes through Fionn McLoughlin, Conor McDermott, Ronan Kelly and Harry Fallon.
Lesser teams would have folded but not Ballintubber. They began to dominate the exchanges for the remainder of the half. They scored two unanswered points in the 8th and 10th minutes and then found the net in the 13th minute to narrow the gap to six points. They shot three more points in the next ten minutes and Davitts looked to be in big trouble. A superb long range point from Harry Fallon lifted the siege in the 24th minute and Fionn McLoughlin fired over another to give Davitts a five point cushion with five minutes remaining.
In the last five minutes, and under extreme pressure, the Davitts defence was immense as they restricted Tubber to a single point scored in the 29th minute, and Davitts held on win by four points.
Brian Hett had a great game in goals and Brian Corless, Aaron Trench and Conor Feerick were very solid in the full back line. Ethan Boyle, Mark Birmingham and Seanie Meehan formed a superb half back line with any one of them being a potential man of the match.
Sean Keadin and Dylan Gallagher (0-1) had a great battle at midfield against a formidable Ballintubber pairing.
Conor McDermott (0-1) was an excellent leader of the Davitts attack in which Fionn McLoughlin (1-2) and Harry Fallon (1-2) took the scoring honours as Ronan Kelly (0-1), Ciaran Treacy and Dylan Gormally (1-0) worked tirelessly throughout.
The other members of the panel are Dylan O Brien, Noah O Brien, Ben Corless, Ruadhan O Connaire, Sean Clarke, Darragh Garvey, Fionn McTigue, Oisin O Gara, Tadhg Feerick, and Michael Hyland.
Well done to the Management team of Darren Connolly, Frank Kelly, Michael Kearns and Michael McGee.
