St. Fechins aim for fourth SHC in-a-row
St. Fechins 3-19 Naomh Moninne 2-14
Louth Senior Hurling Championship Round 3
The hurlers of St. Fechins and their quest for a four in a row of Anchor Tours Senior Hurling Championships is well and truly on course as they avoided defeat against Naomh Moninne in this entertaining third-round clash played out in Dowdallshill last Thursday night.
The Dundalk side faced a big task at throw-in as they needed to beat their opponents by 13 points but despite a spirited performance they succumbed to a team that will go into the final against Knockbridge on Sunday, August 11 as favourites.
After Sean Hodgins had opened the scoring for the Fechins 60 seconds in, both sides wasted good opportunities accounting for two wides a piece. A foul on Conor Murphy saw Dylan Carey open the Dundalk side scoring on 6 minutes with a point from the resultant 20 metre free.
Hardworking midfielder David Stephenson restored the holders' early lead with a good point before Paul Mathews netted the game's opening goal from close range.
Moninne responded with a good brace from Carey including one direct from a sideline cut from the right wing. The Fechins cancelled out this brace with one of their own from Stephenson and free-taker Paddy Lynch.
Their opponents reduced the arrears to just one on 16 minutes when Carey kicked the sliotar past keeper Dan O Neill before Kyle Rafferty tied up matters with a good point set up by Tadhg Dowdall. The black and amber outfit went in front when Darren O Hanrahan fired over from the right wing, 1-5 to 1-4.
From the resultant puck out Paul Mathews picked up possession before soloing in from the left wing to fire past keeper Donal Connolly for his second goal of the half. The sides exchanged the next two points before a long-range point from Darren Geoghegan left just one between the teams again on 24 minutes.
The Fechins were denied a third goal as the Moninne defence did just enough to clear the danger as Paddy Lynch wrapped up the scoring with a point from play from the left of the post to leave his side in front by 2-6 to 1-7 at the break
The second half started in the same trend as the first with the sides sharing the opening four points with David Stephenson accounting for both of the Fechins scores.
Both Moninne's scores came from frees from the sticks of Carey and Geoghegan. The game then swung quickly on the side of the holders as they grabbed four unanswered points over the space of three minutes.
Firstly Paddy Lynch struck over a customary free added to in quick succession with points from play from Ross Berkery, Paul Mathews and a good long-range effort from midfielder Donal Ryan. Carey responded with a pointed free before Paul Mathews completed his hattrick with goal number three on 44 minutes.
Conor Murphy volleyed home a goal for Moninne from the resultant puck out, to which Paddy Lynch responded with a brace of pointed frees as the Fechins now led by 3-14 to 2-10 on 48 minutes.
Keeper Donal Connolly pulled off the first of two terrific saves in this second half to deny Ross Berkery before Sean Hodgins extended the lead to eight with his second point.
After the sides shared the next two points the Fechins wrapped up their deserving victory and place in the Final with three further points from Sean Kerrisk and Lynch (2).
To their credit, Moninne kept fighting to the final whistle and were rewarded with three late points in a row from Tadhg Dowdall, Mark Gahan and Sam Phelan but they have missed out on the 2024 Championship final.
ST. FECHINS: Dan O Neill; Conor Mathews, Peter Fortune, Cormac McAuley; Oisin Byrne, George Allen, Colin Griffin; Donal Ryan (0-1), David Stephenson (0-5), Paddy Lynch (0-8, 6 frees), Ross Berkery (0-1), Sean Kerrisk (0-1); Sean Hodgins (0-2), Seaghan Conneely, Paul Mathews (3-1).
SUBS: Ruairi Morrissey for R Berkery (56), Cathal Ryan for S Conneely (60).
NAOMH MONINNE: Donal Connolly; Conor Whyte, Darren O Hanrahan (1-0), Donal Lee; Sean Magill, Aaron McGuinness Smith, Diarmuid Murphy; Kyle Rafferty (0-2), Darren Geoghegan (0-3, 3 frees); Andrew Mackin, Tadhg Dowdall (0-1), Sam Phelan (0-1); Mark Gahan (0-1), Dylan Carey (1-5, 3 frees), Conor Murphy (1-0).
SUBS: Conor Caraher for Darren O Hanrahan (37), Noel Callan for D Lee (53), Cathal Azzorpardi for D Murphy (53), Stephen Ryan for A Mackin (53), Paul Challoner for K Rafferty (56).
WIDES: St Fechins 11 (5 in first half). Naomh Moninne 8 (7 in first half).
REFEREE: Kevin Brady.