CBC hold nerve to win inaugural Tim Kelly Cup on penalties

CBC 3 Clonakilty Community College 3  (CBC win 5-3 on penalties) 

CHRISTIAN Brothers College are the inaugural Tim Kelly Cup champions after they defeated Clonakilty Community College in the U16 Cork Schools Soccer Cup final at Ballea Park.

After the two teams played out a 3-3 draw, goalkeeper Lucas Kennedy was the difference in the penalty shoot-out as he helped his school win 5-3 by stopping the third spot-kick.

This decided a marathon game that was contested in howling winds and pouring rain. The final exploded to life with a free kick from Evan Lynch that gave CBC an early lead. 

This removed any sense of tension and CBC went up and got a second, almost from the restart. This came from a brilliant passing move that led to Clonakilty goalkeeper Ruari O'Sullivan stopping a shot from Bill McCarthy and Ben McCarthy jumped in to rebounded the ball in.

Clonakilty did not back down and they pulled one back when Luke Murphy pounced on a mistake from the Christian’s back-line. That cut the deficit to just one at the break and the west Cork school equalised at the start of the second half when Charlie McShane chipped the ball into the path of Louka Mohan and the striker finished neatly past Kennedy.

At this point in the game, the energy was frantic as one team celebrated a two-goal comeback and the other wondered what happened.

As the schools tried to make sense of what is happening, CBC’s Tom Bardsley took advantage of this moment and beat two players on the left wing before crossing into the back post. Finn Dalton was in the right place to knock this in and restore CBC’s lead. 

They should have scored a fourth after this but a powerful shot from Lynch bounced off the crossbar.

Clonakilty never panicked, and neither did Murphy as he curled in a free-kick to equalise for his school. The two teams could not be separated in extra time. This meant that a penalty shoot-out was to decide the destination of the Tim Kelly Cup.

Donal O’Connor knocked in the fifth penalty, making sure that the trophy’s first destination was Sidney Hill.

CBC: Lucas Kennedy; Finn Dalton, Tom Bardsley, Max Murphy, Donal O'Connor, Luke Philpott, Andrew Murray, Cian Corkery, Bill McCarthy, Evan Lynch, Ben McCarthy.

Subs: Ronan O'Donovan; Rory O'Connor, Fionn Mansfield, Andrew Bradley, Ryan Woods, Ronan Healy, Sam Murphy, Tom Mills, Rowan O'Kelly.

CCC: Ruairi O'Sullivan, Eamonn O'Donovan, Dylan Harrington, Prince Iyalla, Olan Murphy, Sam Bailey, Shane O'Regan, Charlie McShane, Louka Mohan, Cal O'Mahony, Luke Murphy.

Subs: Rory McCarthy; Tim Bailey, John Deegan, Desmond Kenneally, Arjun Negi, Micheal Kelly.

Referee: Alan Bellmajdoub.