Blessington capture under-20 ‘B’ crown
Super second-half performance secures ‘B’ crown
A scintillating second-half performance, capped by goals from Sean Mescall and Sean Price, set the stage for a blistering Blessington team to overcome a spirited Clara Gaels outfit to claim the under-20 ‘B’ football championship following a thrilling final on Sunday afternoon.
After the two sides went into the half-time break level pegging in the swirling wind, Peter Behan’s side turned in a ruthless showing in the second-half to blow Clara Gaels away; firing 2-9 on the way, while Gaels were unable to find an answer.
For the first 30 minutes of the contest in Roundwood, neither sides could be separated in sweeping windy conditions.
While the gusts that cut across the field all afternoon threatened to undermine the scoring abilities of both sets of players, such conditions would not play into proceedings.
Gaels and Blessington would be uncannily tied together in the opening exchanges. Both of their respective opening scores came from 45s (Oisin McGraynor for Gaels; Brian Bohan for Blessington), followed by frees (McGraynor for Gaels; Kevin Quinn for Blessington).
It would be Clara Gaels who would fire the first shot across the bow in a tight first-half. Breaking through the middle, Oisin McGraynor, potentially bound for the AFL, worked the ball into Eric Olahan down the right-hand side, before squaring the ball into Donal McGraynor for the opening goal of the contest to make it 1-3 to 0-4 in his team’s favour, minutes after Sean Mescall had pointed from a goal chance for Blessington.
The two sides would continue engaging in the back-and-forth encounter, Oisin McGraynor and Jack Manley striking sweet points to keep Clara Gaels in front. It would be Blessington who would regroup and finish the half the stronger, however; Kevin Quinn, Jordan McGarr, and Sean Mescall sending the two teams into the half-time break deadlocked at 1-5 to 0-8.
If the first-half was close and evenly contested, the second was anything but, as a fired-up Blessington put an overwhelmed Clara Gaels to the sword in clinical, comprehensive fashion.
Of course, Blesso’s reinvigorated display may not have come to pass had it not been for Mark
Cullen – who referee John O’Brien had accidentally and comedically shown a red card instead of the intended yellow in the opening half -- smashing the bar for Clara Gaels inside the first minute. From that moment, Blessington went up the other end and kick-started their second-half scoring spree.
Carrying the ball down the right, Ethan Cotter sprayed the ball into the opposition square, allowing Sean Price to rise highest and punch the ball into the net past the helpless Danny Morley, who had replaced the injured Tom Murphy in the Gaels goal in the first-half.
That goal, followed up by a subsequent Price point, would force Gaels into an early double substitution; Ryan Kenny and Dean Carter being brought on for Ian Merrigan and Eric Olahan respectively.
This did nothing to stem the tide of the relentless approach with which Blessington took the half, however.
This was made abundantly clear mere minutes after the Gaels double change, when Sean Mescall smashed the ball past Morley to roar into a dominant 2-10 to 1-5 lead.
To their credit, Clara Gaels kept coming and got a goal of their own when David Miley set-up Mark Cullen to reduce the arrears to six points at 2-12 to 2-6 with 50 minutes on the clock. The game was well-and-truly coming alive
at this point.
Jordan McGarr, a significant influence on the energy displayed by Blessington going forward in the second-half, grabbed two fine scores of this own to push his team’s lead out to eight, before Mescall continued his fine showing with a point of his own to leave Clara Gaels needing three goals in the final 10 minutes to rescue the final.
In the meantime, Gaels were forced into their fourth change when Dean Carter, brought on as part of the double replacement to try and break up Blessington’s rampant momentum, was taken off for Cian Ward due to a head injury sustained in a collision with Brian Bohan.
Clara needed three goals, but were restricted to just one more in the final exchanges, with David Miley turning in off Shane Browne’s pass. That would be as good as it would get for Clara, as Blessington rounded off a tremendous performance with the final scores of the final. Kevin Quinn split the posts with his fifth successful free, before Ethan Cotter rounded off proceedings with an excellent score off the right flank with the final kick of the game to seal the under-20 ‘B’ championship title for the men from West Wicklow.
Scorers: Blessington: Sean Mescall (1-3), Kevin Quinn (0-5f), Sean Price (1-1), Jordan McGarr (0-4; 0-1f), Ethan Cotter (0-2), Brian Bohan (0-1 45’), Ruairi Finan (0-1).
Clara Gaels: Oisin McGraynor (0-4; 0-3f; 0-1 45’), David Miley (10), Donal McGraynor (1-0), Mark Cullen (1-0), Jack Manley (0-1), Ross Ward (0-1f).
BLESSINGTON: Cian Geraghty; Fionn Walsh, Oisin Brogan, Cormac Roe (for Sean Lambe); Ciaran Mescall, Conall Ó Gallchobair, Brian Bohan; Eoin Higgins, Jordan McGarr (for Claude Tounou); Kevin Quinn, Ruairi Finan (for David Phibbs), Craig Maguire; Ethan Cotter, Sean Mescall, Sean Price.
CLARA GAELS: Tom Murphy (for Danny Morley); Luke Kearney, Euan Harper, Ian Merrigan (for Ryan Kenny); Jack Manley, Zach Cullen, Shane Browne; Oisin McGraynor, David Miley; James Doyle, Ross Ward, Andrew Bracanto; Eric Olahan (for Dean Carter; for Cian Ward), Mark Cullen, Donal McGraynor (for Paraic Doyle)
REFEREE: John O’Brien (Newcastle)