St. Johns are the Junior B champions after Easkey rout
ST. JOHNS EASKEY 2- 15 0- 03 ST. JOHNS swept by Easkey on a scoreline of 2- 15 to 0- 3 in Cloonacool Saturday evening to secure the Lola Montez Junior B Championship in a very one sided affair.
Goals from Gabrial Hynes and John Reilly along with seven points from the boot of centre forward Ryan McManus were the key as the town side to record a comfortable success against an overmatched west Sligo outfit.
The contest began evenly enough with some tenacious Easkey defending causing plenty of wayward shooting from St. Johns inside forward line.
As the minutes progressed however, Johns dominance around the middle of the field began to tell as Fergal Kelly and Christy Murphy fielded kick- outs expertly and eventually the onslaught became too much for a valiant Easkey defence.
Points from McManus, Kieran Blake, Ray Henry and Daniel Smith along with a spectacular goal from Reilly minutes before break had St. Johns well in the ascendancy. Easkey’s brief forays into opposition territory yielding just the two first half scores from Thomas Rolston and Gary Kavanagh, leaving it 1- 10 to 0- 2 at the break.
Easkey to their credit came out fighting in the second half and domi- nated a lot of the play for much of the period.
Crucially they failed to make this dominance show on the scoreboard and a solitary point from substitute Declan Brennan was all they came away with from a proud second half display following a disappointing opening 30 minutes.
Knowing that they had one hand on the trophy for much of the second half, St. Johns took their foot off the gas slightly and took the opportunity to empty the bench.
They attempted to exploit the extra space Easkey were leaving at the back and they achieved this best when working a lovely move through the hands from midfield to allow Gabrial Hynes slot home a second goal and put a bit of gloss on the scoreline.
Banisteoir Sean Browne will be delighted with his forwards display after seeing five of six starters register on the scoreboard.
This combined with a superbly water- tight defence led by Conor Sweeney left the final score 2- 15 to 0- 3 and sent the Carrowroe men back to town with the Lola Montez Junior B Championship.
St Johns: Jamie McGovern, John McNulty, Conor Sweeney, Paul McDonnell, Jamie Grehan, Terry Farrelly, Daniel Smith ( 0- 1) , Fergal Kelly, Christy Murphy ( 0- 1) , Darren Kilcawley, Ryan McManus ( 0- 7), Kieran Blake ( 0- 3), Ray Henry ( 0- 3), Gabrial Hynes ( 1- 0), John Reilly ( 1- 0).
Subs: Conor McGovern, Shane Kilcawley, Andrew Kerr, James Gethins, Fiachra Mooney, Cian Hough.
Easkey: Tommy Gilroy, Joseph Cowley, Michael Conway, Thomas Rolston ( 0- 1), James Lindsay, Jonathon Conway, David Hanley, Mickie Finnerty, Joseph Dunphy ( c), Emmet Brennan, Gary Karvanagh ( 0- 1), Padraig Cawley, Tommy Lavelle, John Queenan, Derek Kavanagh.
Subs: Ronan Carty, David Nevin, Declan Brennan ( 0- 1), Martin Nealon, Robert Nealon, Bryan McGuire, Pete Scott, Niall Cawley, Thomas Cawley. Pic: Pic: