Cork minor ladies footballers into All-Ireland final with big win over Cavan
The Cork team who played Cavan in their ZuCar All-Ireland Minor A Football Championship semi-final at MacDonagh Park, Nenagh. Picture: Dan Linehan
Cork 3-13 Cavan 1-11
CORK are through to the ZuCar All-Ireland MFC final after their win over Cavan at MacDonagh Park, Nenagh.
Overall Cork were the better side as they led from start to finish with impressive displays from the likes of Lia Heffernan, Eabha Curran, Sadbh McGoldrick, Rachel Leahy and Orlaith Cahalane.
Cork took the lead just three minutes in when Abigail Ring got on the end of a good ball from Leahy to open the scoring. From the restart, Cork regained possession with Eabha Curran raising their second white flag.
Catherine Ahearne got Cavan off the mark but Cork responded through Leahy, to make it 0-3 to 0-1 with six minutes gone.
With 12 minutes gone Cavan were in on goal but unfortunately for them Ahearne slipped at the wrong moment and Cork were able to clear the danger.
Her slip was compounded even further as the Rebels worked the ball up the pitch and Orlaith Cahalane played Curran in to raise a green flag to put them 1-3 to 0-2 in front.
Credit to Cavan they responded with a magnificent point from Sheridan Seery and she added another to reduce the deficit to two.
Ahearne added another from a free for Cavan before Cahalane set up Leah Hallihan for Cork’s second goal. A tackle by Christina Charters in the build-up to the goal saw her sin-binned as Cavan were down to 14 for the remainder of the first-half.
Cahalane got the score her first-half performance deserved, before she again turned provider for Cork’s third goal, with Curran raising her second green flag.
Leahy got the last score of the half as Cork led by 3-5 to 0-5 at the break.
Cavan started the second-half brightly with Sheridan Seery pointing, before Ahearne saw a goal effort to narrowly wide. She was on target from a free after 35 minutes, to make it 0-7 to 3-5 as they dominated the early exchanges.
Cahalane got Cork’s first score after the break and she was on target again to keep the scoreboard ticking over for her side.
Emma Hurley made it 3-8 to 0-7 with 45 minutes gone as Cork started to control the game again. Abigail Ring increased their lead before Ahearne replied at the other end for Cavan.
Leahy and Sheridan Seery exchanged scores and with five minutes to go it was 3-11 to 0-9 in favour of the Rebels.
Sheridan Seery pointed again and with four minutes left on the clock, Cavan were given a slight hope when Sinead Levingstone beat the Cork defence to score a goal.
But two late points from Ciara Morrison rounded off the scoring for the Rebels as they advance to the final where they will face Galway in the final.
E Curran 2-2, L Hallihan 1-0, R Leahy, O Cahalane 0-3 each, A Ring, C Morrison 0-2 each, E Hurley 0-1.
L Sheridan Seery 0-5, C Ahearne 0-4 (0-2 f), S Levingstone 1-0, A McCaul, E Murphy 0-1 each.
D Creed; S Callanan, L Heffernan, A Barrett; M Condon, S McGoldrick, A Corcoran; A Healy, E Twomey; R Leahy, A Ring, E Curran; E Hurley, O Cahalane, L Hallihan.
K O’Driscoll for A Corcoran (45), C Morrison for L Hallihan (54), K Smith for A Curran (59), L McDonagh for A Ring (60).
C Reilly; S Daly, T McAnenna, R Gunn; A Conaty, C Charters, L Crowe; L Sheridan Seery, C Halpin; S Levingstone, E Madden, M Smith; A Smith, C Ahearne, A McEnroe.
A Doughty for A McEnroe (18 inj), A McCaul for A Conaty (28), A Morrisson for A Smith (41), E McIntyre for C Halpin (52), E Murphy for M Smith (54).
Patrick Smith, Waterford.
