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Mike O’Halloran saw Kilmoyley beat the neighbours in the Kerry Senior Hurling Championship…
Kilmoyley 0-15
St Brendans 0-12
Photo by Mike O’Halloran
On Friday evening I said you can’t bate the youth, but last night it was a case of “the old dog for the hard road”, well less of the old I guess as the man who brought Kilmoyley level was the experienced Daniel Collins.
With two minutes left on the clock and point behind he was presented with a penalty and rather than risk a save he blasted the ball over the bar to level the game putting faith in his fellow players.
That faith was rewarded by Maurice O’Connor who drove over two points and his brother Robert scoring one to get Kilmoyley into the next round.
Continued below…
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The sides were level at halftime six points all after a tight thirty minutes. Dan Collins had opened the scoring for Kilmoyley after a foul on Maurice O’Connor, Cian Hussey replied for St Brendans, Kevin Hannafin and Tom Moloney followed with points for St Brendans , two Kilmoyley points followed from Robert Collins and Jordan Brick, all square after ten minutes.
St Brendans were tenacious at the back and made life very difficult for the Kilmoyley forwards, Killain Woulfe was very impressive.
The St Brendan’s team. Photo by Mike O’Halloran
After the water break, Paudie O’Connor put Kilmoyley in front but Kevin Hannafin drove over two in a row, Cian Hussey pointed a free after Daithi Griffin was fouled.
Maurice O’Connor who was the stand out player on the park tipped over two points in a row to level matter at halftime six points all.
Kevin Hannafin and Maurice O’Connor exchanged points at the start of the second half, a little while later Jordan Brick bore down on the St Brendans goal but he was unable to keep control of the slioter and the chance went.
Maurice O’Connor stroked over two more to put Kilmoyley ahead by two, nine points to seven.
Cian Hussey nearly had the the ball in the net from distance only for John B O’Halloran to push it out for a 65. Cian drove the 65 between the sticks.
Two minutes later Maurice O’Connor brought a great save from Darren Delaney when Darren tipped his rasper over the crossbar.
Two unanswered points from Cian Hussey and Nathan O’Driscoll drew St Brendans level with 21 minutes gone in the second period. Kevin Hannafin put St Brendans ahead.
But guess who drew Kilmoyley level? Yep you guessed it, Maurice O’Connor. A foul on young Seamus O’Halloran led to another converted free from Cian, St Brendans ahead twelve points to eleven.
With 28 minutes on the clock Maurice was fouled on the way in, a penalty for Kilmoyley. Surely this was going to be a two point lead for Kilmoyley from the penalty, but no, as I described earlier, Collins levelled the game and the last three scores came from Kilmoyley sticks.
I had expected Kilmoyley to win, but apart from the two O’Connors the rest of the players have some soul searching to do if they are to progress to the final.
There is tremendous credit due to Paudie O’Connor who has recovered from two cruciate injuries and worked hard with Mossie in the sands of Banna to get back to full fitness.
But I guess this was the game Kilmoyley needed to clear the injectors, I said in my preview that St Brendans needed to spread their scorers and present themselves with goal scoring chances they only had one half goal chance. Final score again; Kilmoyley 0-15 St Brendans 0-12.
