Loreto dreams are over
TWO STARS in the making condemned Loreto (Wexford) to a heavy defeat in the Leinster ladies’ football Post-Primary Schools Junior ‘A’ championship final in wet and windy Tinryland on Thursday.
While the Wexford girls were at home, preparing for one of the biggest matches of their lives on the previous weekend, Emma Lawlor and Erone Fitzpatrick played the full game for Laois as they opening their National League Division 2 campaign with a win.
Lawlor, who ended this final as ‘player of the game’, actually scored the last two points for her county, breaking an injury-time tie, to bring her scoring total to four raised white flags.
It’s no wonder that Scoil Chríost Rí were so impressive, so difficult to stop.
Just one week before they picked up the Leinster Schools Senior ‘A’ title, with both girls playing starring roles again.
Whatever slim hopes Loreto possessed against this juggernaut slipped away when they lost the toss and were pitted against a strong first-half wind. Not that it proved too much of a hindrance in the opening six minutes.
They looked the better team immediately after the throw-in. Attacking into the elements, they won a penalty when Portlaoise goalkeeper Aimee Keane scooped up the ball while on the ground. Eve Hession stepped up and calmly drilled home the spot-kick.
The next time Loreto scored was three minutes into first-half added-time, when Mollie Bates flashed over the crossbar. In between it was wave after wave of Scoil Chríost Rí attacks, led by the deadly duo.
Both were already on the board when Fitzpatrick’s long-range free found the net in the tenth minute (1-2 to 1-0). A string of points followed before a second dead-ball from the lively centre-forward beat Sally Walker.
Not to be outdone by her teammate, Lawlor, who looked so natural off both feet, raced through to net in the 23rd minute. She could have claimed another had Ciara Byrne not poached one, punching home a shot that was already heading to the rigging four minutes before half-time.
From 4-11 to 1-1 down at the interval, things almost got worse for Loreto. Lawlor cracked the upright, Walker saved from Jenny O’Connor-Murphy, and Amy Byrne nailed the post as Portlaoise looked to put the game to bed.
The champions would later add a pair of Isabelle O’Toole points, but Loreto gave a good account of themselves for most of the second-half.
Sophie Boxwell clipped over a 36th-minute point after being found by Bates from a Ciara O’Connor long ball.
O’Connor forced Aimee Keane into a smart save and Niamh Dunne fired narrowly wide as Loreto went searching for goals. Bates was next to be denied by the Portlaoise ‘keeper as time began to run out.
Anna Hennessy flashed over in the 59th minute, after good work by O’Connor, Dunne and Hession. On an otherwise miserable day for Loreto, they also had the final say, with Ciara Banville drilling high to the net in added-time to leave a slightly fairer look on the scoreboard.
Loreto: Sally Walker; Caitlin Carroll, Anna Hennessy (0-1), Michelle Carty; Liadh Dwyer, Emily Bates, Ciara Banville (1-0); Aisling Gouldson, Ciara O’Connor; Niamh Dunne (capt.), Eve Hession (1-0 pen.), Amy Cousins; Sophie Boxwell (0-1), Mollie Bates (01), Aisling Alouf. Subs. - Ella O’Connor for Cousins (37), Anna Mulligan for E. O’Connor, inj. (44), Shauna Hackett for Gouldson, inj. (52), Sadbh Cullinane for Boxwell, inj. (54), Clodagh Walshe for Dwyer, inj. (58), also Ruth Hendrick, Grace Barry, Emma Kelly, Alanna Fusciardi-Wallace, Ellie Mernagh, Sarah Hobbert.
Scoil Chríost Rí: Aimee Keane; Sarah Fleming, Rebecca Reddin, Ciara Byrne (1-0); Sophie Delahunt, Zoe Keegan, Julia Cahill (0-1); Alice Byrne, Sarah Larkin; Amy Byrne, Erone Fitzpatrick (capt., 2-5, 2-2 frees), Isabella O’Toole (0-2); Jenny O’Connor-Murphy, Emma Lawlor (1-5), Lisa Buggy. Subs. - Lisa Keane for Buggy (37), Aoibhe O’Brien for O’Connor-Murphy (44), Caoimhe Maher for Fleming (44), Anna Kearns for Delahunt (49), Laura Devoy for A. Byrne (50).
Referee: Jonathan Murphy (Carlow).