Antrim Hurling League – Division 3
Glenravel 1-14 Rasharkin 1-17
A series of seven unanswered points form Rasharkin in the closing ten minutes of this game saw them come from behind and overtake the home side to end the game three points to the good and more importantly two very valuable league points. They took better advantage of the strong breeze in the second half and always looked like they could recover their first half deficit.
Glenravel got off to a perfect start when a speculative ball in from the right wing from Niall Donnelly confused the Dreen defence and pin-balled off the left upright and a few players in the square before crossing the goal line. Deccy Traynor followed up with a point a few minutes later and the home side were looking good. Big midfielder, Tiernan O’Boyle got the visitors off the mark with a good long range point but veteran Martin Scullion pulled one back to leave Glenravel ahead 1-02 to 0-01 with one quarter gone. Rasharkin were starting to get into their stride and their superior stick work was paying dividends as they picked off the next two points from play. However the Glensmen were stung into action with three points in a minute from Connor Deery, Niall Donnelly (F) and Declan Traynor. Conor McKillop was getting on a lot of ball for Rasharkin and he was next on the scoresheet. Niall Donnelly demonstrated his usual accurate free taking and his two points before the break meant the teams retired with Glenravel leading on a 1-07 to 0-06.
Rasharkin signalled their intention playing with the breeze in the second half when Aiden McKeever pointed with only seventeen seconds on the clock. They followed that up with a free but back came the home team with a brace of frees from Niall Donnelly and a nice point from Connor Deery when he looked likely to be bottled up. Declan McKay pulled one back for the visitors but a further brace of frees from the trusty Niall Donnelly left the scoreline 1-12 to 0-09 with Glenravel seemingly in control.
That was all to change though as burly full forward Cormac Gaston goaled for the visitors after twelve minutes and Declan McKay followed with a point one minute later. Suddenly the Dreen lads were back in the game big time. A Niall Donnelly free in the seventeenth minute left the score 1-13 to 1-10 in favour of Glenravel but with the wind, Rasharkin were looking a lot more menacing. In those final ten minutes they would go on to record seven consecutive points, Cormac Gaston and Conor McKillop providing scores from play and Rasharkin’s Shane Hasson putting over five frees from close range as the Glenravel defence started to weaken. Fittingly Niall Donnelly completed a fine personal performance with a pointed free two minutes into added time but it wasn’t enough, Rasharkin’s scoring spree had seen them home safely with three points to spare. Final score Glenravel 1-14 Rasharkin 1-17. A vital win for Rasharkin as both teams are hovering at the wrong end of the Division 3 table.