Junior A Hurling: Simon O'Brien hits two goals as Carrigaline beat Ballygarvan

Carrigaline 2-17 Ballygarvan 1-16 

Carrigaline were far too slick for a brave Ballygarvan in the Ross Oil South East JAHC at Crosshaven.

The hero for the Carrigaline outfit was Simon O’Brien, who netted a goal in either half of this contest, including the opening score after four minutes.

Credit Ballygarvan who forced their way back into the contest in the opening minutes of the second half, with a goal directly from a Mark O'Callaghan free, but a dependence on Shane Buckley frees was never going to be sufficient.

Carrigaline had their noses ahead with O'Brien’s goal as early as the fourth minute, with Eoghan Kirwin adding two more by the sixth minute as Bally had to wait until Conor Dowd opened their account on 10 minutes.

Leading by 1-5 to 0-1 after 12 minutes this contest looked like something of a mismatch. That was until Ballygarvan got their house in order and reeled Carrig in with four unanswered points thanks to Mark Gallagher, Liam Ahern, David Bouse and the impressive Shane Buckley, as the scoreboard narrowed to 1-6 to 0-5 on 17 minutes.

Kirwin, who was outstanding over the dead ball for the hour then lashed over four points as Adam Dunne hit the post up the other end. From there to the break the sides swapped scores as two late points from Buckley and Mark O’Callaghan narrowed the score at halftime from 1-11 to 0-10.

Ballygarvan looked to have blown this contest open early in the second half as O’Callaghan scored from a long-range free as the sliotar somehow slipped through a crowded Carrigaline square.

Moments later, Shane Buckley had the sides level but they were never able to push on with their advantage as they continued to earn their scores from Buckley and the dead ball.

Driven by O'Brien, who may well see himself called into the intermediate ranks after this performance, put daylight between the sides with a goal on 42 minutes.

Leading by 2-15 to 1-15 on 50 minutes, two more Kirwin points to a single O’Callaghan point was enough to see this game out.

Scorers for Carrigaline: E Kirwin 0-11 (0-9 f), S O’Brien 2-1, I O’Donoghue 0-3, P Ronayne, and A Barry 0-1 each.

Ballygarvan: S Buckley 0-8 f, M O’Callaghan 1-2 f, F Ahern (0-1 65), C Dowd 0-2 each, M Gallagher, D Bouse 0-1 each.

CARRIGALINE: C McCarthy; S Buckley, D Cooney, S Browne; K Dwane, J Torpey, L Ahearn; A Barry, K Kavanagh; I O’ Donoghue, P Ronayne, S O’Brien; E Kirwin, S McHugh, S Connolly.

Subs: P Lavery for W O’Neill, S Connolly for L Ahern (both 45).

BALLYGARVAN: P Murphy; C Mackey, S O’Donovan, M Sheehan; M O’ Callaghan, F Ahern, J Fenton; Z Davison, C O’Leary; M Gallagher, S Buckley, C Dowd; D O'Mahony, A Dunne, D Bouse.

Sub: C Downey for A Dunne (37).

Referee: Brian Coniry (Crosshaven).