McKeever Hotels Intermediate Hurling Championship
Semi Final
Cushendun 0-21 Creggan 2-14
Saturday 10 October
Brendan McTaggart reports from Glenravel
Cushendun produced a dramatic comeback to seal their place in the intermediate final on Saturday afternoon. Creggan had held an eight point lead at half time and were playing some fantastic hurling, Kevin Rice and Morgan Nelson causing mayhem in the Cushendun full back line at every opportunity.
The Emmet’s hit back after the interval however and when they needed a big performance, Connlaoth ‘Loaf’ McNeill stepped up to the mark for them. He finished the game with 14 white flags, 10 of those from placed ball as he gave an exhibition from frees while pointing a sideline and scoring as good a point as you’ll see half way through the second half.
The Kickham’s men were superb in the first half and were full value for their eight point lead. Morgan Nelson and Kevin Rice with the majors while Oran McCann marked his return to a Creggan shirt for the first time in two in a half years with two points.
Conor McCann was the glue that held Creggan together. Playing in the six role, McCann was outstanding with a masterful performance.
Cushendun had to dig deep in that second half and with Loaf leading the way, there was an air of inevitability of them taking the lead. Creggan had chances to take the game into extra time but Cushendun hung on.
Playing with the wind at their back, Kickhams opened the scoring through Kevin Rice. Cushendun struck back with points from McNeill (’65) and Conor McHugh before Rice doubled his tally in a frenetic start to the game.
A free from McNeill and point from Shane McQuillan came either side of Oran McCann’s first point of the game to give Cushendun a one point lead after 10 minutes.
The next 10 minutes saw Creggan go through the gears, finding the back of the Cushendun net twice in the space of three minutes and putting them in charge of the game.
Conor McCann split the uprights with his first of six frees before Rice scored the opening goal in the 13th minute. Collecting the sliotar after Conor McCann sent it towards the opposite corner, Rice collected and made a bee-line for the Cushendun goal. He made no mistake and gave John Morgan little chance between the sticks.
The second goal was the best move of the first half with Keelan and Thomas McCann combining before sending Morgan Nelson through. His finish was expert like and with a further point along with a score from Aidan McKeown, Creggan were in a commanding position.
Cushendun briefly halted the Creggan charge with Loaf’s third point of the half before Kevin Rice and Conor McCann (free) stretched the Creggan lead to nine points with a little under eight minutes of the half remaining.
A trio of unanswered points from Loaf (two) and Thomas Scally revived the Cushendun challenge but Creggan answered with Conor and Oran McCann raising white flags to leave the half time score 2-10 to 0-8 in Creggan’s favour.
The Emmet’s started the second half with a quick score from Sean McKay and while Conor McCann responded with his fourth free of the match, the Kickhams men had a gilt-edged goal chance in those opening exchanges.
Rice and Nelson combining but Morgan was alert to the danger and made a top save to deny Nelson with the goal at his mercy.
The reprieve seemed to spur Cushendun into life and had the opposite effect on Creggan, however. The Kickhams wouldn’t register another score for fully 15 minutes and by the time Conor McCann would score his fifth free of the semi final, the Creggan lead was gone.
Cushendun reeled off eight scores in a 14 minute spell that saw them come back from the brink. Jack McKay and Shane McQuillan finding scores while Loaf’s free taking was exemplary. He sent over a side line cut in the same period of time while splitting the posts with the kind of instinctive point you would see in a Sunday Game highlights reel – intercepting a pass and firing over all in the one movement.
With the sides tied and still a quarter of the game remaining, it looked like Cushendun were set to push for home. McCann’s fifth free was answered with a brace of points from Loaf to give Cushendun the lead with a little over five minutes remaining.
Substitute Sean Duffin fired over for Creggan to restore parity to the scoreboard once more as the Kickham’s men showed more fight in the closing stages but points from a Loaf free and Thomas Scally in the 57th minute gave the Emmet’s what felt like a huge, two point lead.
While Scally’s second white flag of the match was Cushendun’s last score of the semi-final, Creggan began to misfire. Conor McCann saw two frees go to the wrong side of the posts and one played short when they still had time to take the game into extra time. He would add another free in the second minute of injury time but the Cushendun defence held out to seal a one point win and book the Emmet’s place in the Intermediate decider in two weeks time.
TEAMS
Cushendun Starting XV: John V Morgan; Mark McSparran, Archie McSparran, Pearce McKeegan; Jack McKay, Donal O’Hara, Shane McQuillan; Thomas Scally, Calum Kilgore; Harry Kilgore, Conor McHugh, Connlaoth McNeill; Fiontan McQuillan, Sean McKay, Matthew McCartin
Subs: Aidan Corbett for A McSparran (35); Donncha Laverty for H Kilgore (54); Conor Bannon for F McQuillan (54)
Scorers: C McNeill 0-14 (10f); S McQuillan 0-2, T Scally 0-2; J McKay 0-1
Creggan Starting XV: Cormac Rice; Eunan McAteer, Keelan McCann, Paeder McGuckian; Senan O’Boyle, Conor McCann, Aidan McAteer; Jake McAteer, Sam Maguire; Oran McCann, Ruairi McCann, Dan Doran; Morgan Nelson, Thomas McCann, Kevin Rice
Subs: Sean Duffin for T McCann (45); Kevin Small for J McAteer (49); Lee Johnston for D Doran (58)
Scorers: K Rice 1-3; C McCann 0-6 (6f); M Nelson 1-1; O McCann 0-2; A McKeown 0-1; S Duffin 0-1
Referee: Declan McGarry (Loughgiel)
TO SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM THE GAME, CLICK ON THE LINK….
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