Five-star Parnells sail into quarters
STABANNON C’LAINN GAELS 5-16 0-5
STABANNON Parnells cruised into the quarter finals of the Junior Championship where they will face Glyde Rangers thanks to this comprehensive victory over Cuchulainn Gaels at Louth Village on Friday evening.
After both teams lost their opening fixture to Glen Emmets, this was a straight shoot-out to see who would advance to the knockout stages, but right from the opening moments the outcome was inevitable.
The Mid Louth side were simply too strong for their opponents in all departments and had a considerable edge in terms of strength, team work and most important of all, scoring. As always, the Omeath side gave their best over the hour but were unable to make any real impression on the Parnells.
Aonghus Giggins turned in an impressive display for the winners as he landed a total of eight points as well as making a good all-round contribution, while Dean Lynch claimed two goals. There were also majors for David Cluskey, Niall Cluskey (penalty) and Daniel Bannon.
Cuchulainn Gaels began with the wind in their backs and might have been hoping that this would allow them to gain a foothold on proceedings. However, it was Stabannon who enjoyed the majority of possession and Shane Sweeney opened the scoring before Giggins landed his first point from a free.
Gaels responded with a well-taken point from Cian McDonald but that was as good as it got for his side as Giggins fired over two points before Stabannon struck two goals at the start of the second quarter to effectively end the game as a contest. The first was a well taken effort from Bannon and seconds after McDonald struck a point for Gaels, a foul on David Cluskey allowed Niall Cluskey to fire home from the penalty spot, making it 2-4 to 0-2.
Giggins and Sweeney added points before Dean Lynch got on the end of a good passing move to score a third goal. At the other end, Rammie Phillips kicked two frees but at the interval his side was trailing by 3-6 to 0-4.
Less than two minutes after the restart, Giggins kicked over from play before David Cluskey set up Dean Lynch for his second goal of the night.
Cuchulainn Gaels continued to battle and on 37 minutes Kieran McAteer kicked what proved to be their only point of the half.
Without having to break sweat for the remainder of the contest, Stabannon dominated the ball and a further nine points to their tally, while Cluskey rounded things off by scoring a fifth goal nine minutes from the end.
STABANNON PARNELLS: Anto Byrne; Cathal Halpenny, Conor Fanning, Alan Lynch;, Barry Lynch, Martin King, Ken Lynch;, Colm Giggins, Niall Cluskey 1-0 (pen); Shane Sweeney 0-2, Aonghus Giggins 0-8 (5 fr, 1 45), Dean Lynch 2-1; David Cluskey 1-1, Daniel Bannon 1-2, Wayne Lynch. Subs: Paul Egan 0-1 for W Lynch, Liam Giggins 0-1 for S Sweeney BC, Fintan Martin for D Lynch, Colin Quinn for A Giggins.
CUCHULAINN GAELS: Brendan O’Hagan; Peter Morgan, David Heaney, Brendan McKeown; Jordan Loye, John Morgan, Kieran McAteer 0-1; Francis O’Hagan, Michael McCabe; Cian McDonald 0-2, Eoin McDonald, Seamus McCabe; Rammie Phillips 0-2, Brian Elmore, Jody Keenan. Subs: Martin Ward for S McCabe, Gavin Mullen for J Keenan, Paul O’Hanlon for R Phillips, James Jennings for K McAteer, Alan O’Reilly for B McKeown.
REFEREE: Ultan McElroy