Joy for Baltinglass
U-13s see off gallant St Pat’s in ‘A’ decider in Arklow
BALTINGLASS ST PATRICK’S 5-14 4-5
BALTINGLASS claimed the Under-13 ‘A’ county football title with a well-deserved victory over a brave St. Patrick’s team at Arklow last Sunday morning.
They started at a savage pace with flamboyant midfielder Calum Brophy clipping the first point from the first attack. Jack Kenny and Jack Bookle added two more before the Wicklow town men plundered the game’s first goal. Adam Ralph powered in across the end line before locating Sam Culleton in space and he rifled to the Baltinglass net.
The goal seemed to spur the west Wicklow men into action and Brophy scored a tremendous goal when he arrowed a shot from 30 yards into Wicklow keepers Rory Hennessy’s net.
Moments later, Bookle got an opening and drilled an effort towards goal however Hennessy sprung from nowhere to save unfortunately for the Wicklow netminder Ross Nolan was on hand to strike the rebound home.
When Matthew Fisher stretched the lead to seven things looked bleak for the county town men.
Unperturbed they set about eating into the Baltinglass lead. Culleton pointed before turning provider for Will Farrell to blast their second goal of the game.
The Baltinglass response was immediate with Jack Kenny placing a beautiful goal after tremen- dous work by corner back Kareem Matomi had provided the assist.
They closed out the half with five points on the trot with Bookle, Kenny, Brophy and Dean Kelly all troubling the umpires to leave them eleven to the good at the interval.
Pats came out firing in the second half with Steven Gormley testing Baltinglass’ keeper Eoin Cooney’s reflexes with a tremendous effort. However, Kenny soon extinguished any hope of a fight back with an audacious goal from distance reminiscent of the Offaly midfielder Ciaran McManus from yesteryear after Kelly had set the impressive attacker into space.
Pats never dropped their heads and struck for another goal of their own when Alex Sinnott’s ball into the danger zone was bundled home by Billy Joe Connors.
Baltinglass kept pulling away with more wonderful points from Brophy, Kenny and Bookle before Kelly got on the end of a flowing move to hammer home their fifth goal.
Once more Pats refused to lie down, and the goal of the game was scored by Connors. Sinnott dropped a ball into the square Connors fetched and as he struck for goal Cooney bravely blocked his effort, with the Baltinglass defence converging Connors with a bodacious backheel flick managed to get his second goal of the game.
The game finished poetically with Brophy from out on the right wing and Kenny a beautiful curling effort from the left providing the last two scores.
Pats battled gamely and had great performers in Connors, Culleton and Will Farrell.
For Baltinglass, Brophy, Bookle, Kelly and full-back Jake Doyle had fine games, however, throughout the contest Jack Kenny was a constant thorn in St. Pats side with clever movement, assists and accurate score taking.
Scorers - Baltinglass: Jack Kenny 2-4, Calum Brophy 1-3, Dean Kelly 1-2, Jack Bookle 0-4, Ross Nolan 1-0, Matthew Fisher 0-1
St. Pats: Billy Joe Connors 2-0, Will Farrell 1-1, Sam Culleton 1-1, Steven Gormley 0-2, Daniel Kavanagh 0-1
Eoin Cooney; Callum Connell, Jake Doyle; Kareem Matomi, Cody Fagan, Jack Kenny; Calum Brophy, Jack Bookle; Matthew Fisher, James Fleming, Ross Nolan; Conor Stephenson, Dean Kelly. Subs: Damien Corrigan, Jaseer Murphy, Aston Pender, Ben Quinn-Burke, Mario Ciuciu, Dillon Nolan, John Nolan, Naoirse O’Neill.
Rory Hennessy; Harri Armstrong, Steven Gormley; Ryan McCormack, Lorcan Byrne, Will Farrell; Sam Culleton, Alex Sinnott; Ross McCrea, Daniel Kavanagh, Adam Ralph; Billy Joe Connors, Conor Mitchell. Subs: Jack Noble, Josh Butler, Sam Christie