Moguegeen lads run riot
score-taking was exceptional.
It did take them a little while to find their feet. It was 0-3 to nil at the end of the opening quarter after scores from Cian Byrne, Adam Waters and Cian O’Grady-Fortune - whose name was appropriate with three points during the game that registered off the uprights.
Robbie Rochford flashed over his opener in the 16th minute and Brian Dillon also raised a white flag before O’Grady-Fortune slipped Conor McGee in and the Moguegeen centre-forward rattled the net.
The interval whistle came at a good time for Cloughbawn but it didn’t halt their opponents’ momentum. A brace each from O’Grady-Fortune and McGee helped make it 1-13 to nil after 41 minutes.
After Johnny Connors shot wide for Cloughbawn, they finally grabbed their first point, an Eanna Doyle score after Gary Kehoe fed him into the clear.
Moguegeen added their second goal seven minutes from time when a marauding McGee run ended with him firing a bullet to the top corner.
Trailing by 2-16 to 0-1, Clougbawn kept battling. Connors forced Jimmy Molloy to save after James Flood’s long-range effort skidded off the post. They did add a late Stephen Casserly free but it was scant consolation at the end of a disappointing evening for the Castleboro boys. DYLAN O’NEILL played a captain’s role as he fired Shelmaliers to victory in the New Ross Standard Under-14 hurling Division 1 shield final, overcoming a determined Coilte O’Rahilly’s side in a wet and windy Oylegate.
After going in at the break trailing by a goal, Shelmaliers turned things around in a fine second-half performance in which O’Neill’s score-taking impressed, hitting 1-6 in difficult conditions.
Shelmaliers looked good right from the start as Paul Hearne and O’Neill pointed either side of the Coilte O’Rahilly’s opening score from Conor Twomey.
Hearne added a goal shortly before Twomey and O’Neill traded points midway through the half.
At this point the Horeswood and Gusserane amalgamation turned things around, beginning with a goal and a point from the lively Twomey and points from Conor Foley and Joe O’Sullivan.
O’Neill kept things ticking over for his side with two points, but the New Ross District boys went ahead before half-time thanks to an excellently-taken goal from Kevin Wall.
The opening ten minutes of the new half was tit-fortat as O’Neill exchanged scores with Wall and O’Sullivan, but the Over The Water boys came into their own after a great double save from Ben McAleese inspired them, and they were back level midway through the half thanks to O’Neill and Corey Lawlor.
Foley and Twomey kept their side just in front with eight minutes remaining, but then the Shels finished the game like champions as O’Neill hit a point and rifled to the net from close range after a brief goalmouth scramble.
Lawlor added the insurance point going into the closing minutes before Mikie Connors proved to be the super-sub as he fired a low shot to the net with no time left for a Coilte O’Rahilly’s reply.
It was one part of a successful double for the Shelmaliers club as their Minors collected the Premier shield at the same venue.