Rock too strong for Bellurgan
IN a clash of the nearly men and the dark horses, Rock Celtic were too strong for Bellurgan in the North Leinster semi-final of the under-16 Skechers Cup in the very windy conditions at Bellurgan on Sunday.
Rock narrowly missed out on both the league and the cup in the local Schoolboys under-15 league, with Bellurgan finishing top of the pile in the first division in the season goneby, and beat the Seasiders in the League Cup.
The Peninsula side carried on from there to show they were a force to be reckoned with by upsetting the form guide to advance to the last 32 like Rock of the national competition by accounting for Parkvilla and Laytown.
However, on Sunday Rock with first use of the wind applied strong pressure from the kick-off and proved stronger in all departments.
They made the breakthrough in the opening quarter of an hour cashing in on poor defending by the home side.
They increased their lead as a result of a lovely flowing move from the back to the front to go two nil to the good after half an hour through Evan Durnin.
The latter caused a lot of problems for Bellurgan who re-adjusted their team in the second half and Gerard O’Hanlon went close to reducing the leeway when he shot over the crossbar from the edge of the penalty box.
However, Rock stretched away from their opponents in the closing 15 minutes, tacking on three more goals, the last with virtually the last kick of the game.
Durnin accounted for two of their goals, with the others supplied by Benji Dada, Niall Brennan and Sean Gartlan with one apiece. ROCK: Conor Maddy, Eddie Finnegan, Jai Akhal Joey O’Brien, Dillon Simpson,
Nathan Todd, Mark Leavy, Sean Gartlan, Benji Dada, Evan Durnin, Niall Brennan, Cian Sheridan, Niall Leer, Dillon Cronin, Jess Cumiskey, Sebastian McGeough.
BELLURGAN: Shane Rogan, Sean Brennan, Owen O’Hagen, Sean O’Kane, Donal Magennis, Gerard O’Hanlon, Daire McDaid, Nathan Mills, Adam Roddy, Mark McArdle, Conan McGuinness, Robert Malone, Ronan McMullin, Alex Gregory, Ethan Galligan.