Louth GAA club | Division One League round-up

St Mochtas 2-3 St Mary's 0-7

Reigning Louth GAA Cardinal O’Donnell Cup champions St Mochtas got the defence of their title off to the best possible start with victory over St Mary's in Ardee on Saturday night.

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Goalkeeper, Rory O’Kane, was the hero for the winners as he scored what proved to be the winning goal from a ‘45’ in the second half of a game where the conditions contributed significantly to a low-scoring affair.

The hosts began brightly with the opening two points of the game, but the Mochtas edged in front for the first time when they found the back of the net through Cormac Smyth.

However, that proved to be the visitors’ only score of the half as the Marys added three without reply to lead by 0-5 to 1-0 at the break, with Callum Caffrey and Conor Gillespie among the points.

The Louth Village side were given a huge boost when O’Kane’s ‘45’ evaded everyone in the crowded goalmouth and found its way to the back of the net.

St Mary's twice came back to level, but three second-half points from Gerry Garland (2) and Jamie Farrell ensured that the visitors came out on top.

St Mochta's: Rory O’Kane 1-0; Oisin Ker, Connell Kierans, Conor McKenna; Ben Goss Kieran, Darren McMahon, Oisin Callan; Dylan Farrell, Sam Marron; Conor Garland, Gerry Garland 0-2, Jamie Farrell 0-1; Danny Kindlon, Liam O’Flaherty, Cormac Smyth 1-0. Phil Englishby, Liam O’Flaherty and Sean McLoughlin.

St Mary's: James McGillick; Luke Woods, Paraic McKenny, Conor Keenan; Kian Moran, Fionn Coyle, Tadhg Caffrey; Cillian Keenan 0-1, Robbie Leavy; Calum Caffrey 0-4, Daire McConnon, Josh Taaffe; Ronan Carroll, Conor Gillespie 0-2, Luke Keenan.

Subs: Gavin Douglas for J McGillick, Eimhin Keenan for J Taaffe, David Rooney for C Keenan.

Hunterstown Rovers 3-13 Dreadnots 0-5

Hunterstown Rovers overcame the disappointment of losing the Paddy Sheelan Cup semi-final by brushing aside the challenge of Dreadnots to open their Division 1 league campaign with victory.

The game in Clogherhead saw the visitors get on top from the early stages, and goals from Ciaran Russell, Colm Murphy and Dean Burns put the seal on a comfortable win.

With the wind in their backs, Rovers struck early and had opened up a four-point gap after ten minutes. Before the 20th minute, they had added five more and, at the break, were leading by 0-13 to no score, with Tony McKenna kicking two two-pointers, while Murphy, Russell, Donovan Sheridan and Jamie O’Callaghan were also on target.

The Dreadnots finally got off the mark after the restart, but they rarely looked like getting back in contention. Ciaran Russell’s goal took the wind out of their sails before Murphy and Burns raised the green flag.

A Jay Hughes two-pointer was a rare highlight for the hosts, who also had Padraig Rath and Sam Reilly on target.

Hunterstown Rovers: Donovan Sheridan 0-1; Adam O’Reilly, Patrick Taaffe, Daithi Carroll; Colm Murphy 1-2, Shane Halpenny, David Finn; Tony McKenna 0-4 (2x2p), Jason Monaghan; James Rogers, Aaron Levins, Ciaran Russell 1-3; Oran Martin, Jamie O’Callaghan 0-1, Dean Burns 1-0.

Subs: Ryan Ward for O Martin, Glen Matthews for D Burns, Joe Rogers for J O’Callaghan, Cian Matthews for C Russell, Jonah Skelly for S Halpenny.

Dreadnots: Jonathan Whelehan; Alex Aspell, Padraig Rath 0-1, Conor Clarke; Ciaran Finnegan, Barry Faulkner, Ciaran Caffrey; Conor Faulkner, James Califf; Sam Reilly 0-1, Jay Hughes 0-3 (2p), Donnacha Hodgins; Dean Hyland, Darragh Shevlin, Craig Shevlin.

Subs: Conor Shevlin for C Faulkner, Calum Skinnader for J Califf, Sean O’Driscoll for D Hodgins, Paddy McGrory for D Hyland, Enrique Devlin for C Shevlin.

St Joseph's 2-13 Cooley Kickhams 3-5

The Joes started their Division 1 League campaign with a five-point win over Cooley Kickhams in Cluskey Park on Saturday night, where Storm Dave added considerably to the challenge.

The Joes opened the scoring from an Alan Quigley 13m free with Conall Smyth adding a second from play, while Joseph Hanlon was on target for Cooley on six minutes.

Alan Quigley (45) and Ben Collier pointed for Joes before Fionn O’Reilly pulled one back to leave the hosts 0-4 to 0-2 ahead at the end of the first quarter.

A Gabriel Bell two-pointer had the Joes lead out to four, followed by Cian Connor and Ben Collier trading points before Thomas McCarragher struck the first goal of the game for Cooley on 23 minutes. The Joes responded immediately when Oisin

McGuinness calmly drove a low shot to the left corner of the net. A minute later, it was McGuinness who turned provider to send David Kieran through for a second Joe's goal on 26 minutes.

The final score of the half was a second two-pointer from the boot of Gabriel Bell, to put the Joes ahead by 2-9 to 1-3 at halftime.

The second half saw Cooley cut the margin to six points with a second goal, when a long-range two-point effort from midfielder Enda O’Neill found its way to the Joe's net on 32 minutes.

With the Joes down to 14 following a black card on 36 minutes, it was Cooley who dominated possession, however scores were at a premium.

An excellent two-pointer from Alan Quigley steadied the Joes, with a Ben Collier free cancelling out a Cooley score to leave the Joes ahead by 2-12 to 2-4 at the end of the third quarter.

The final quarter saw a number of long-range efforts from Cooley drift wide of the target, before a well-worked move down the right wing ended with a third goal from Brian Boyle on 54 minutes, cutting the margin to four points.

The final minutes yielded a single point when Conor Neary arrowed his shot between the posts to leave the Joes winners by five.

St. Joseph's: Shane Barron, Cian Sheridan, Aidan Kieran, Rian Devlin, Conor Neary (0-1), Gabriel Bell (0-4), David Kieran (1-0), Oisin McGuinness (1-0), Killian Staunton, Oisin Reidy, Ben Collier (0-3), Craig Doherty, Alan Quigley, (0-4, 45,3f), Conall Smyth (0-1), Jack Mulligan, Rory McLoughlin.

Cooley Kickhams: Niall Brady; Dylan Clarke, Patrick Hanlon, John Boyle; Fionn O’Reilly 0-1, Dean McGreehan, Oran McAnerney; Jack Long, Enda O’Neill 1-1; Sean Hoey, James O’Reilly, Thomas McCarragher 1-0; Joseph Hanlon 0-2, Emmet Duffy, Cian Connor 0-2.

Subs: Tiernan Hanniffy, Brian Boyle (1-0), Fearghal Malone.

Mattock Ranges 1-11 Geraldines 1-9

Mattock Rangers had to survive a late rally from the Geraldines before securing an opening day win in Division 1 at Haggardstown on Saturday night.

The visitors made the better start to the game and had the first four points on the board before the Gers got off the mark through a Danny Nordone free. The same player added a second soon after to cut the gap to two at the end of the first quarter.

Mattock were struggling to make the wind advantage count, and a Thomas McNamara point saw the gap reduced to 0-5 to 0-4.

However, the Collon men found their range in the closing stages of the half as two-pointers from Cathal Fleming and Ben McKenna had them leading by 0-9 to 0-4 at half-time.

Geraldine's hopes of getting back into contention suffered a setback early in the second half when Fleming scored the first goal of the game as his side went 1-10 to 0-4 in front.

Sean McKenna and Niall Brennan were on target for the Gers, but they faced an uphill challenge entering the final quarter with a 1-11 to 0-6 deficit.

However, they refused to give up and added a further three points before Brian Cafferty found the net with four minutes to play, leaving two between the teams.

However, the hosts were unable to complete the comeback as Mattock hung on for victory.

Mattock Rangers: Stephen Smith; Rian Hickey, Cillian Hickey, Callum Wogan; Robert Holmes, Shane Maguire, Tom Grimes 0-1; Ben McKenna 0-2 (2p), Jason Condon; Liam Flynn, Cathal Fleming 1-3 (2p), Jack Thompson 0-2; Karl Grimes 0-2 (2p), Oisin McKenna 0-1, James Carragher.

Geraldines: Sean McEneaney; Tom Cunniffe, Darragh O'Gradaigh, Jamie Callan; John McGrohan, Tiernan Hand, Thomas McNamara 0-1; Beanon Corrigan, Brian Cafferty 1-1; David O’Connell, Jim McEneaney, Niall Brennan; Aodhan Gibbons, Sean McKenna 0-1, Danny Nordone 0-4.