St Kierans, North Kerry and St Brendans get back to back wins as County Minor Football Championship continues

THE County Minor Football Championship continues on Monday evening with five second round matches taking place across the four groups. There were wins for Austin Stacks, St Kierans, North Kerry, St Brendans ands John Mitchels.

GROUP A

St. Kierans 2-11 Killarney Legion 0-6

ST. Kierans are definitely looking like one of the contenders and proved it again with another sparkling display at home against Killarney Legion. They led by 0-7 to 0-5 after a tightly contested first half but really opened the throttle in the second half to pull away while restricting Legion to just a solitary point.

Jack Joy finished with 1-5 (3f), Conor Cahill had 1-1, Gerad Costello kicked 0-3, and Eoin Moriarty had 0-2 to his name. For Killarney Legion Brian O’Sea notched 0-4 and Eoin Murphy kicked 0-2.

Kenmare Shamrocks 2-7 Austin Stacks 5-9

AUSTIN Stacks, minor league champions for the last two years, needed to get back to winning ways down in Kenmare after an opening round defeat to St. Kierans, and did so in consummate style. The old saying is that goals win games, and Stacks have that knack of finding the net at key moments.

Kenmare made a lightning start with 1-1, the goal coming from Aidan O’Sullivan Casey, who was unlucky not to score another. Stacks’ Ryan O’Driscoll goaled as they kicked into gear and they led by 2-4 to 1-3 at half-time.

It was a tightly contested second half, rarely more than three points between the teams. An Oisín O’Connor goal gave Kenmare real hope but they were caught on the counter-attack in the last ten minutes as Stacks pressed home their advantage.

Eoin Mangan, Gavin (0-1), Rory Lynch, Ryan O’Driscoll (2-4), and Aodhan Horgan stood out for the victors, while Jayden Horgan, Ronan Carroll (1-4) and Ben Murphy got the goals.

GROUP B

Rathmore 0-7 North Kerry 0-22

NORTH Kerry doubled up on their victory over East Kerry last week with another very impressive display against Rathmore in Rathbeg.

North Kerry opened up a four point lead through Callum Carey (2f), Keighan Moloney, and Tadhg O’Connell. Rathmore’s Conor Moynihan and North Kerry’s Pat

Brosnan traded scores before David Darmody and Cathal Casey (2f) brought the home side back within a point.

It was nip and tuck from there on, Tadhg O’Connell and Daithí Keane Tyrell on the mark for North Kerry but Rian Murphy and Cathal Casey responding for Rathmore. A Michael Coolahan score saw North Kerry take a 0-9 to 0-7 lead into the halftime break.

North Kerry emerged in determined fashion and gradually began to take over. A real highlight was cornerback Fonn Byrne making a superb goal-line clearance to deny Rathmore a goal that would have kick-started their challenge, but in truth few teams could have stayed with North Kerry’s drive and purpose.

Best for North Kerry were Pat Brosnan and Fionn Byrne, while midfielders Cathal Casey and Conor Moynihan gave everything to Rathmore’s cause.

GROUP C

St. Brendans 2-10 West Kerry 1-11

ST Brendans made it two wins from two games, with a hard-earned two-point win over West Kerry who had beaten Mid Kerry the previous week.

It was point for point early on but a goal by Nick Lacey for St. Brendans in the 24th minute gave them a 1-4 to 0-4 lead and they added another point before half-time.

Early in the second half Tadhg Ó Slattara added another green flag and West Kerry were always chasing the gap after that.

The men from the west got a goal of their own in the 35th minute and had the gap back down to one point with six minutes left, 2-8 to 1-10, but St. Brendans held on to narrowly win a cracking contest.

Best for the victors were Tadhg Ó Slattara, Breandáin Meehan, Rory Kennedy, Nick Lacey, Conor Lucey, and Ruadhán Clifford.

GROUP D

John Mitchels 3-9 Dr. Crokes 1-13

GOALS from Gearóid White, who finished with 1-4 in total, and Luke Sullivan, who notched 1-3, gave John Mitchels a 2-6 to 0-6 half-time lead. A third goal at the start of the second half was to prove vital. They needed every bit of that lead in a pulsating second half between two good teams.

Ben Kelliher kicked 1-11 for Dr Crokes and Jake Nash and Adam Byrne led their charge, but Mitchels matched them all the way and had tremendous performances themselves, particularly from Killian O’Donnell and Fionnán Brosnan.