Rochford plays his part

BALLYHOGUE BOOKED their place in the semi-final of the Greenstar Under-20 football Division 3 championship with a comfortable enough victory over Volunteers in a windy Páirc Charman on Saturday.

That said, Ballyhogue goalkeeper Daire Rochford also played his part with a number of impressive saves, and without his interventions it would have been a far closer contest.

There’s no doubting that the Enniscorthy District side were deserving winners though, and they were 0-10 to 0-3 to the good at the interval, with the accurate Dean Doyle leading the way.

The attacker helped himself to seven points in the first-half, with five coming from frees, while the lively Enda Minogue chipped in with their other three points.

The Wexford town side struggled to make inroads into the teeth of the wind, although Aaron McGuire, Eoin Reck and Harry Kehoe all split the posts, and they came close to grabbing a precious goal late in the half, only to be denied by the brilliance of Rochford.

McGuire fed the inrushing Cian Rossiter and his shot looked destined for the left-hand corner of the net, but the netminder quickly got down to his right to make an excellent save.

Jack O’Leary popped over the first point after the turnaround for Volunteers, but any hopes of them making the bright start to the second-half that they needed were quickly extinguished when Ballyhogue picked off four points on the trot.

Midfielder Nick Doyle contributed two scores in quick succession, while frees from Dean Doyle and Liam Rossiter stretched their lead to ten points.

While Ben McMahon stopped the rot for the Vols, Ballyhogue continued to hold the upper hand and held a 0-17 to 0-5 lead by the 44th minute, with Matt Browne, Cian Wickham and Liam Rossiter all registering scores.

Volunteers began to exext more pressure on the Ballyhogue defence as the game wore on, but they met stubborn resistance in the form of goalkeeper Rochford, who did everything in his power to keep his clean sheet intact.

Jack O’Leary was left cursing his luck when the netminder twice denied him with fine saves, before he was eventually beaten in the 58th minute when Eoin Reck teed up Aaron Kinsella, who slid the ball to the net.

Rochford was determined not to be beaten for a second time though, and he thwarted Lee Busher and Eoin Reck before the final whistle as Ballyhogue marched on to the final four where they will face St. Anne’s in Bree on Saturday at 6 p.m.

Ballyhogue: Daire Rochford; Cian Rochford, Shane Fenlon, Edward Byrne; Matt Browne (0-1), Darragh Byrne, Ronan Byrne; Peter Kelly, Nick Doyle (0-3); Jack Kehoe, Enda Minogue (0-3), Cian Wickham (0-1); Liam Rossiter (0-2, 1 free), Dean Doyle (0-8, 6 frees), Tadhg Malone. Subs. - Peter Rodgers for Kehoe, Ian Donohoe for Malone.

Volunteers: Oisín Kehoe; Jason Moore, Cian Rossiter, Cian Kehoe; Aaron McGuire (0-1), Dion Murphy, Ben McMahon (0-1); Rhys Murphy, Luke Dowdall; Josh McMahon, Jack O’Leary (0-1), Finn Coughlan; Aaron Kinsella (1-0), Josh Murphy, Eoin Reck (0-1). Subs. - Harry Kehoe (0-2, 1 free) for Coughlan, Lee Busher (0-1 ‘45) for Kinsella, Aaron Kinsella for C. Kehoe.

Referee: John O’Loughlin (Monageer-Boolavogue).