U16A Football Final
St. Brigid’s 1-16 Dunloy 0-9
A strong opening half and an equally impressive closing period saw St. Brigid’s overcome the challenge of Cuchullian’s Dunloy in this U16A Football Final, played at Dunsilly on Thursday night.
The South Belfast lads started well and went on to dominate the opening half and looked to have one hand on the trophy when they led 0-10 to 0-2 at the halfway stage with the excellent Aidan Holmes leading the way.
The cultured left foot and clever movement of the Naomh Brid number 15 saw him contribute 0-6 of his side’s first half total both from play and from frees with Rory Magee 0-2, Dermot Logan and Patrick McAleer contributing the rest of their first half total.
The Musgrave Park side moved the ball around with great confidence and were patient in their build up play and were afforded too much room by a Dunloy side who started slowly but did improve after the break.
Their first half scores both came from Oisin O’Brien from the placed ball but the Dunloy number 11 was never able to repeat the scoring form he displayed against All Saints in the semi-final where he kicked 2 pointers for fun.
The Dunloy management introduced Paidi O’Kane, Piaras McMullan and Ronan Elliott at the start of the second half and it certainly brought about an improvement with Oisin O’Brien converting his third free of the evening to give them a bright start.
Garret Finnegan and Rory Magee replied with points for Naomh Brid and Ciaran O’Brien then pulled off a good save to deny Dermot Logan as St. Brigid’s tried to respond.
Dunloy were growing in confidence however and Blaine McMullan, Paidi O’Kane and Caden Doherty responded with points with Doherty’s effort unlucky not to end in the net.
The North Antrim side continued to shade the second half exchanges but Ronan Neenan had an attempt cleared off the line and Fionn McCloskey struck the crossbar before Harry Blaney fired over to close the gap to five with 10 minutes remaining.
That would be as close as they got however with St. Brigid’s finishing strongly and the superb Aidan Holmes punished a couple of indiscretions and Daniel Clarke added another from play.
Oisin O’Brien kicked an excellent 2 pointer to give his side a glimmer of hope with four minutes remaining but a long range effort from Dermot Logan dipped at the last minute and came off the underside of the crossbar and ended in the net at the other end to put the Belfast side out of sight.
A good performance from the Musgrave Park side for whom Aidan Holmes was superb and Rory Magee, Patrick McAleer and Dermot Logan all sparkled in attack.
At the other end the Naomh Brid defence was solid with Lorcan Gallagher, Rudy Doyle and Senan McMahon giving little away.
Dunloy took just too long to get going but when they did Paedar Doherty, Aaron Richmond, Lorcan Martin, Blaine Martin, Oisin O’Brien and Padai O’Kane were impressive.
St. Brigid’s: 1 Cameron Dolan, 2 Rudy Doyle, 3 Lorcan Gallagher, 4 Harry Brennen, 5 Alex Jackson, 6 Senan McMahon, 17 Daniel Clarke, 9 Patrick McAleer, 10 Zak Kerr, 11 Rory Magee, 12 James Morrissey, 13 Garrett Finnegan, 14 Dermot Logan, 15 Aidan Holmes, 16 Matthew Ferris, 18 Dan McAuley, 19 Patrick Carlile, 20 Zav ier Kerr, 21 Conor Taylor, 22 Eamonn McKeever, 23 Matthew McMullan, 25 Dara McMullan.
Dunloy: 1 Ciaran O’Brien, 2 Harry Burnett, 3 Paedar Doherty, 4 Noah Bradley, 5 Caden Doherty, 6 Aaron Richmond, 7 Cillian Cunning, 8 Dylan McTague, 9 Lorcan Martin, 10 Blaine Mullan, 11 Oisin O’Brien, 12 Ethan Guiney, 13 Ronan Neenan, 14 Harry Blaney, 15 Tiernan O’Reilly
Subs: 18 Padai O’Kane, 20 Fionn McCloskey, 22 Pearse McMullan, 17 Se McGarry, 16 Aodhan O’Brien, 23 Ronan Elliott, 19 Liam McClelland, 22 Piaras McMullan
Referee: Charlie Hemsworth
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