Out Dunlavin
widen Rathnew’s lead. The first he curled over from 40 yards having been under severe pressure from marker Eoin Murtagh before he arced another long range one in with the outside of his right boot.
Dunlavin needed to come out fighting in the second half but it was Rathnew who upped the intensity and seemed sharper to the breaks and the dirty balls. They were getting a strangle hold around the middle with the likes of Gary Byrne at centre back and Jonah Graham at midfield really showing well.
Ronan Byrne added a good score from a free before Edward Doyle came up with the crucial goal that made the difference in the end.
Stuart and Philly Murphy were involved in the build up to release Doyle who finished low and hard leaving Tom McGuirk with little chance and Dunlavin with a mountain to climb and only 15 minutes to scale it.
To their credit Dunlavin battled on and 3 minutes later they scored a goal to cancel Doyle’s major with plenty of time on the clock. Tom Harney emptied the bench and the substitutes rewarded him as Barry Miley was heavily involved in the build-up where the ball found its way to Marty Caplis and the forward hit an absolute screamer in off the crossbar from 15 yards.
Miley was again instrumental in setting up James Walsh as he closed the gap further and then Caplis was millimetres away from landing his second goal and giving Dunlavin the lead as his speculative looped shot across goal deceived Dillon Keogh only to bounce out off the post.
That seemed to be their chance gone but the hugely energetic Fionn Deegan had other ideas and burst clear of the Rathnew full back with a surging run.
With 10 yards between him and the net he pulled the trigger but his shot lacked conviction as Rathnew substitute Jason Devlin put his body on the line and blocked the shot.
Edward Doyle hit over a free before Stuart Murphy was shown the line for a second yellow hav- ing swung wildly trying to tackle Daniel Dawson, who had a very good game, but Dunlavin didn’t have much time to take advantage and although James Walsh added two points they couldn’t quite claw back the deficit as Rathnew rumble on.