St Pat’s ladies secure win over Roche
ST. PATRICKS ladies travelled to Roche to take on a Roche/Na Piarsaigh combination team in the opening round of the ladies senior championship.
Roche started the match strong but however wasted a lot of scoring opportunities before they got their opening point on the 6th minute. St.Patricks started to get into the game however but they also missed chances in the opening 10 minutes before Roche added 2 points in a minute to open up a 3 point gap. Grainne Finnegan got the opening score for the Pats with a well taken score after 12 minutes, Kate Flood added a 2nd a minute later to reduce the gap to 1 point.
On the half way mark of the 1st half the Pats were dealt a blow with Roche finding the back of the net to increase the gap to 4. This gave Roche momentum and they followed up adding 1-2 in the next 3 minutes. Kate Flood and Grainne Finnegan added 2 points for the Pats to bring it to 7 between the sides.
St.Patricks had a lot of good moves throughout the match with Catherine Rice finishing off one of these finding the back of the net to bring it back to just 4 between the sides. Roche however finished the half strong with 3 further points to lead by 7 at the break.
St.Patricks needed to start the 2nd half strong and when they were awarded an early free close in Kate Flood blasted it in to the roof of the net. Kate Flood then again powered through the Roche defence before passing into Grainne Finnegan who found herself in plenty of space in the box and calmly finished into the back of the net to reduce the gap to 1.
Roche got their opening score of the half in the 10th minute and followed up with a further point to bring it back to 3 between the sides. Both sides continued to add to their tally in the next 10 minutes with the gap still at 3 points with 10 minutes left to play.
Meg Woods who had a great game in the middle of the field added a point before another great move resulted in Grainne Finnegan being fouled in the box and the Pats were awarded a penalty with the Roche player shown a yellow card. After a short break Kate Flood stepped up to take the penalty and finished superbly into the back of the net to give the Pats a 1 point lead for the first time in the match.
Both sides traded scores in the final few minutes and with time almost up the sides were level however Meg Woods added a point for the Pats to give them a 1 point lead. Roche had a further chance however with the Pats ahead. They went looking for a goal and with the defence closing well their shot went wide of the post with the Pats securing the win.
St.Patricks: Nadine Callan, Melissa O’Hanlon, Grace Treanor, Caoimhe Breen, Karen Fealy, Claire Savage, Ellen Barry, Aine Breen, Meg Woods 0-2, Aisling O’Doherty, Kate Flood 2-6, Naoimh Butterly, Mary Loughran, Grainne Finnegan 1-2, Catherine Rice 1-0.