Bunclody leave visitors seeing stars
HOSTS HWH-Bunclody dispatched sorry Starlights without too much fuss in the Greenstar Under-20 football Division 1 championship quarter-final on Saturday.
The victors, winners of the Minor Premier title last season, were strong favourites coming into the game and they looked on a different level completely from the moment the ball was thrown-in until Adam Hogan rounded off the 31-point victory in added time. They will face Shelmaliers or Glynn-Barntown in the last four.
That might sound like a big gulf between the sides, but in reality Bunclody did a pretty good job of keeping the score down by mercifully taking points against their understrength opponents through most of the second-half.
Underdogs like Starlights need all the breaks and then some, but instead things went south quickly.
Both superb Bunclody midfielders, Peadair Cowman and Martin O’Connor, had bagged goals by the time Dylan McVeigh was sent-off for an off the ball incident in the eighth minute.
The Bellefield boys didn’t throw in the towel but they were struggling to keep their heads above water.
Cathal Doyle looped in a classy third major in the 20th minute as his side eventually moved into a 3-7 to nil lead.
Will Doyle kicked Starlights’ only point of the first-half in the 24th minute, but things got decidedly worse for the sub-less visitors when Mick Delaney was forced off with an injury, leaving his side with just 13 men.
The half-time whistle went soon after, with Bunclody 3-10 to 0-1 up. A one-two with Josh Martin ended with Eoin Kelly punching to the net as the lead increased further by the 35th minute.
Craig Peare scored an absolute cracker of a point at the other end but the points kept piling up for Bunclody.
Substitute John McCormack got in on the act shortly after his introduction, while Brandon Kavanagh scored four in a row as the advan- tage swelled to 4-20 to 0-2.
Starlights battled on and were rewarded with an Aaron Dobbs brace and a John Murphy score.
Brandon Kavanagh brought his tally to 1-5 in just 20 minutes with a 58th-minute goal, but Starlights still managed to record the most telling stat of the evening - their full-back line was their top scoring line after Murphy added his second point late on.
HWH-Bunclody: Jack Regan; Paddy Dunbar, Adam Hogan (0-1), Jamie Kavanagh; Byron Byrne, John Dunne (0-2), Ciarán Kavanagh; Peadair Cowman (1-0), Martin O’Connor (capt., 1-1); Stephen Kavanagh (0-4), Eoin Kelly (1-2, 0-1 free), Eddie Black (0-2); Cathal Doyle (1-2), Josh Martin (0-1), Tadhg Kelly. Subs. - John McCormack (0-2) for Martin (35), Aidan Mahon for Dunbar (37), Lee Conroy for Black (40), Brandon Kavanagh (1-5) for T. Kelly (40).
Starlights: Anthony Larkin; Adam Kirwan, John Murphy (0-2), Craig Peare (0-1); Craig Foley, Nathan O’Connor, Mick Delaney; Martin Ryan, Anthony Murphy; Dylan McVeigh, Aaron Dobbs (capt., 0-2, 1 free), Jack Doyle; Mikey Dempsey, Will Doyle (0-1), Michael Cullen.
Referee: Paddy Brady (Réalt na Mara).