Under 19 A Hurling Final
Glenariffe-Glenravel 1-16 Ballycastle 0-11
Glenariffe-Glenravel won the Under 19 A Hurling final when they beat Ballycastle in a hard fought decider in perfect conditions at Cushendun on Sunday. Trailing by 0-9 to 0-4 at half time Ballycastle closed to within two five minutes after the restart, but Glenariffe-Glenravel were always able to find a reply and kept their noses in front right through the third quarter. The key score came on 53 minutes when Glenariffe-Glenravel substitute Niall Hynds was rugby tackled in the large square and Brogan O’Connor fired home the resultant penalty to give his team some breathing space and they pushed on from there to win by eight in the end.
Playing towards the sea end in the opening half the winners were on top from the start and midfielder Odhran Gillan put them in front in the first minute. They had chances to increase their lead but man of the match Orrin O’Connor was off target with a couple of frees, and it was a further five minutes before left half forward Cormac McKeown got their second score, a fine point on the run, and when he repeated the dose three minutes later thing looked more promising. Ballycastle opened their account when centre forward Conor Donnelly hit a great point from out in the left corner in the tenth minute and the gap was down to one when Criostia McAuley sent one over from a free.
Peadar McDonnell came back with a point from play for Glenariffe-Glenravel as his team started to get on top, and though Orrin O’Connor was off target again from a free he found his touch by the 20th minute and added two from frees and one from a 65 as they pushed on to lead by 0-9 to 0-5 at half time.
A Conor Donnelly point in the first minute of the second half was the tonic Ballycastle needed and when Crioistai ‘Bamba’ McAuley added two from frees soon afterwards the gap was down to two. The gap went from two to three on three different occasions in the next ten minutes as McAuley’s scores in the 39th, 45th and 50th minutes were answered by Cormac McKeown, Orrin O’Connor and Brogan O’Connor as the winners just kept their noses in front.
A great score by James Bakewell got it back two again going down the home straight and the game was in the balance, but when second half substitute Niall Hynds won a great high ball in the Ballycastle square he was dragged down from behind and referee Brendan Toland pointed to the spot. Brogan O’Connor and drilled the ball low to the corner of the net, and the shot had to be good as he Castle netminder Anthony Mullan came within an inch of saving it with a spectacular dive.
Cormac Donnelly came back with a long range point for Ballycastle, but the goal had given the Glenariffe-Glenravel side a bit of breathing space and Orrin O’Connor tacked on another point after Cormac McKeown had been pulled back going through. ‘Bamba’ McAuley hit his seventh point of the game with two minutes left to play but Orrin O’Connor had the final say for the winners as he raised his ninth white flag to seal the win.
GLENARIFFE-GLENRAVEL
Phelim Ward, Cathan Graham, Cailian Devlin, Niall Magee, Ronan Leeech, Colla Ward, Callum McIlwaine, Odhran Gillan, Patrick McIlwaine, Peadar McDonnell, Cormac McKeown, Daniel Kearney, Brogan Abram, Caolan Lennon, Orrin O’Connor.
Subs– Eamonn Ward, Connor Duffin, Niall Hynds
BALLYCASTLE
Anthony Mullan, Patrick McAlonan, Cian Baudant, Colm Kelly, James Bakewell, Orran Donnelly, Jack Colgan, Darragh Kelly, Cathair Donnelly, Conor Donnelly, Tiernan Heggarty, Niall McClean, Criostia McAuley, Gavin McToal.
Referee – Brendan Toland (Lamh Dhearg)
