Senior:
Churchill 3-09
Skellig Rangers 0-10
Churchill maintained their second place in the Co League table and moved to within one point of leaders Laune Rangers with an 8 point win over Skellig Rangers on Sunday afternoon.
The teams were level at 1 point apiece when Churchill’s Ger McCarthy found Liam O’Donnell with a clever pass and O’Donnell made no mistake, finishing to the back of the net.
Skellig responded immediately with a point from Declan O’Sullivan after Eoghan O’Brien had saved Ronan O’Shea’s goal bound effort. Churchill extended their lead to 5 with three unanswered points from Ivan Parker, Sean Donnellan and Mikey Brennan.
Skellig’s Ciaran Keating and Churchill’s Killian Fitzgerald exchanged points, but Skellig were starting to dominate possession around the middle third and finished the half strongly with 2 more points from Keating and full forward Martin O’Sullivan to leave a three point margin between the teams at half time, Churchill 1-05; Skellig Rangers 0-05.
Skellig began the second half as they finished the first with a Keating point and then had a chance to take the lead when they were awarded a penalty.
However, this was expertly saved by Kerry Junior ‘keeper Eoghan O’Brien. O’Brien then converted a 45 shortly after to restore his teams three point lead.
Ivan Parker was switched to full forward for Churchill and responded with 2 points in quick succession and when Ger McCarthy pointed for the hosts the gap was out to 6.
Keating again pulled one back for Skellig, but Churchill’s JJ Prior made life a little easier for his team when he raced onto a pass from Jack O’Connell to score his sides second goal.
Again, Skellig responded positively with points from Brian and Aidan O’Sullivan, but Prior struck again for his second goal, playing a neat one-two with Ger McCarthy, putting the result beyond doubt with 8 minutes remaining.
Aidan O’Sullivan scored the last point of the game for Skellig when he had goal on his mind, but the result was not in doubt at that stage.
Best for Skellig were Ciaran Keating and Aidan O’Sullivan, while for Churchill full back Peadar Stack, Sean and Cian Donnellan and Liam O’Donnell stood out.
U16: Churchill’s first fixture in the County League, against Ballyduff, was a game that we were in control of for most of 60 minutes. Darragh O Sullivan with a tally of 3-10 was in superb form and the Ballyduff defenders found him difficult to handle.
All of Churchill’s defenders made it difficult for their markers to get into the game and kept them to 4 points in the first half. Goalkeeper Paddy O Sullivan, made a number of saves throughout, ensuring Ballyduff were kept at bay when a goal may have helped them get into the game.
Ben Donnellan, Adam Doyle and Eoghan Walsh in the half back line kept Churchill on the front foot, helping in attack with Billy Walsh, Niall Cassidy & Brian Lenihen finding their men regularly with assured passes.
Tireless running from David Feely in the half forward line, both in defence and attack, helped Churchill’s cause throughout. Our midfield duo of Paddy Walsh and Eddie McCarthy were very impressive driving forward regularly and setting up attack and counter attack with Paddy Walsh finishing the game with 1-1.
Cian Kearney, in his first competitive game for over 8 weeks, drove forward in the second half and was also a thorn in Ballyduff’s side.
Other scorers on the day included Ronan Kelly 1-0, Sean Cloghessy 0-1, Dylan Walsh 0-1 and Donnacha O Sullivan helping out in the half forward line as well as finishing the game in defence. Final score Churchill 5-13 Ballyduff 2-8.
Churchills 2nd county league game pitched them away to John Mitchels in a very entertaining game for the neutrals.
John Mitchels got the first point of the game and Churchill replied with Darragh O Sullivan scoring 1-1 in quick succession. Churchill were on top at this point with Adam Doyle particularly effective in the half back line.
John Mitchels replied with the next three scores, all from frees from their goalkeeper to leave the score tied after 15 minutes play. John Mitchels then upped their game and pushed ahead 3-5 to 1-1 with mistakes in the Churchill defence costing us dearly.
Churchill did regroup however with Darragh O Sullivan causing endless problems for his marker and scoring 3 more points and Paddy Walsh and Eddie McCarthy tagging on some scores to leave the half time scoreline Churchill 1-7, John Mitchels 4-7.
Half time introduction of Harvey Brosnan and a change in the set up of the team helped Churchill’s cause as we made inroads into the 9 point deficit. Darragh O Sullivan, time and time again, was a menace to John Mitchels backline forcing frees to be conceded and cautions to be given by the referee who had a tough job on his hands with the competitive nature of the game.
15 minutes into the second half Churchill had reduced the deficit to 5 points, 2-9 to 4-8. Barry Hamilton was next up to enter the game and didn’t disappoint with Churchill’s backline making it increasingly difficult for John Mitchels to score and would add another 2 points to their overall total for the game.
Ben Donnellan scored a point for Churchill and forced a great save form the keeper that looked a point was the result only for it to come off the post and John Mitchels cleared. Cian Kearney in the half back line drove forward time and again and Darragh O Sullivan forcing his marker to foul repeatedly, which resulted in a second yellow for John Mitchels full back with 10 minutes of playing time left.
A black card for Churchill’s Eoghan Walsh, who had another great game, saw the introduction of Dylan Walsh in the forward line with Brian Lenihen covering back. 2 more points from Darragh O Sullivan reduced the margin to just two points and with the time running out O’Sullivan, with a personal tally of 2-10, broke the Mitchel’s rear-guard and blazed over for a point.
John Mitchels steadied themselves and got the last score of the game to give a final scoreline of 2-14 to 4-10 in favour of the John Mitchels. Next up is Castleisland Desmonds.
U12 Boys: Congratulations to our U12 boys who won the County League Division 3 Title, beating John Mitchels on Thursday evening. Well done to all the players and mentors involved.