Carnaross emerged victorious with three points to spare over Gaeil Colmcille in a hugely entertaining contest played in the Páirc in Kells.
Carnaross 0-19 Gaeil Colmcille 2-10
B League (Division 5)
Played in Páirc Colmcille – 15/5/2018
It was a high scoring contest played in largely good spirits despite some hard-hitting. Carnaross played with a first half breeze and hit the ground running 0-5 to no score after five minutes. Thomas Nugent split the defence with a pass for Decky Reilly to open the scoring before Pierce Fleming quickly doubled the lead. Patrick McDermott sandwiched two points either side of a long-range Decky Reilly effort to put Carnaross in the driving seat.
Timmy Reddy kept Gaeil Colmcille in the game with a penalty save from McDermott before The Gaeils registered their first score, 0-5 to 0-1 after ten minutes. The next ten minutes saw the same scoreline repeated and The Ross led 0-10 to 0-2 after twenty minutes. Shane Casserly, Stephen Flattery and Cian O'Reilly all hit points along with two for McDermott. Brian Comaskey dominated the midfield during this period with Dillon Fox and Cian O’Reilly spraying the passes.
Andrew O'Rorke was elusive as smoke to reduce the lead to seven before two more McDermott efforts left Carnaross 0-12 to 0-3 to the good with five first-half minutes to play. The Gaeils then struck for a fortuitous goal to keep their hopes alive. Reilly and McDermott closed the first half scoring with The Ross in a commanding position 0-14 to 1-3.
The Gaeils needed a strong start to the second half and duly narrowed the gap to five points by registering three of the first four points. Killian Porter with the sole Carnaross score after an exhibition dummy. The game was in the melting pot but Carnaross stood up to hit three of the next four points themselves. Stephen Dawson put his boot through a fine score before McDermott and Porter gave The Ross some breathing space with 10 minutes to play 0-18 to 1-8.
The closing ten minutes were eventful to say the least. A mistimed tackle by Ryan McManus saw Gaeil Colmcille reduced to 14 men, however the home team responded well as they immediately palmed a goal to reduce the gap to four. With the game played at a frantic pace end-to-end, the last eight minutes of normal time only yielded two points, one for each side and the four point gap remained with normal time up. Entering stoppage time the town side seemed to incite a melee in an attempt to shake Carnaross up but it was too little too late. A consolation free in the sixth minute of stoppage time left the final score 0-19 to 2-10 with Carnaross the deserving winners.
Carnaross: Shane McNiffe, Jack Roche, John Brogan, Stephen Dawson (0-1), Killian Porter (0-2), Thomas Nugent, Cian Yore, Pierce Fleming (0-1), Dillon Fox, Cian O’Reilly (0-1), Brian Comaskey, Stephen Flattery (0-1), Patrick McDermott (0-9), Declan Reilly (0-3), Shane Casserly (0-1). Subs: Aidan Lynch for Flattery, Matthew O’Reilly for Yore, Oliver Murphy for Reilly, John L McGee for Casserly.
