Ballygarvan too strong for Carrigaline to retain South East JAFC title

Ballygarvan 5-11 Carrigaline 2-11 

Ballygarvan simply blitzed Carrigaline in the Procure.ie South East JAFC at Crosshaven as they retained their divisional title.

Carrigaline had simply no answer to Ballygarvan as they lashed a total of five goals passed the Carrigaline defence over the hour.

Man of the Match Daniel Mackey netted three times in the first half and Evan O'Connor added two more in the second period of the game.

Ballygarvan were first out of the blocks as Daniel Mackey made good use of an early mark While Carrigaline hit two early wides, Ballygarvan led by 0-3 to 0-0 thanks to two points from Ray O'Halloran after five minutes.

As Carrigaline looked to get into the contest, disaster struck as O'Halloran fed Daniel Mackey and he crashed the ball to the net as Ballygarvan added two more scores from Evan O’Halloran and Halloran.

With Carrigaline in need of a score, it was Nicholas Murphy who found the net on 11 minutes but the reprieve was short-lived as Mackey scored a goal up the other end a minute later.

With two points a piece from Nicholas Murphy and Brian Murphy to a single reply from O'Halloran, the scoreboard read 2-6 to 1-2 after 20 minutes.

However, Mackey who was simply on fire up the other end completed a hattrick of goals having initially rescued the ball from going out of play.

To their credit, Carrigaline hit the next three points as Pa Mellet, Eoghan Murphy and Tim Cronin were on target as Ballygarvan began to miss the target as the half-time score read 3-6 to 1-5. Carrigaline opened the scoring in the second half as Ciaran Dwane, but moments later they had a lucky escape as Daniel O’ Mahony bearing down on goal drove wide at the far post.

Any chance of Carrig coming back into the contest faded as Evan O’Connor struck for two goals in five minutes as they led 5-8 to 1-6 on 45 minutes.

Determined to not give up without a fight Carrigaline had three unanswered points from Mellet, Tim Cronin and Declan Fitzgerald.

Ballygarvan were in no mood to take their foot off the gas as sub Dylan O'Connor added two more points.

A late flurry from Tim Cronin saw him add 1-2, including a late penalty following a tackle on Nicholas Murphy.

However, It was all in vain as Ballygarvan lifted the Pa Joe Cronin Cup for a second consecutive year.

Scorers for Ballygarvan: D Mackey 3-2, E O Connor 2-1, R O'Halloran 0-5, D O'Connor 0-2, S Brady 0-1.      

Carrigaline: T Cronin 1-4 (0-2 f), N Murphy 1-1, P Mellet 0-2 K Dwane E Murphy, B Murphy, D Fitzgerald 0-1 each.      

BALLYGARVAN: G White; R O'Leary, Z Davidson; S Brady, S O’Donovan, M O'Mahony; S Fenton, C O’Regan; E O’Connor, J Fenton, D Mahony; D O'Maca, R O'Halloran, N O'Dowd.

Subs: N Dowd for Callum Mackey (h-t), P O'Halloran for J Fenton (34), D O'Connor for D O'Mahony (38), M Cussen for C O'Regan (49), Connor Mackey for Z Davidson (54).    

CARRIGALINE: C Lavert; E O'Mahony, P Laverty, Brian Murphy; K McNulty, S Dwane, T Foley; K Dwane, P Mallet; S Horan, Dylan Sutton, C Ryan; T Cronin, E Kavanagh, T Vaughan. 

Subs: D Fitzgerald for D Sutton (h-t), P Ronayne for T Foley (35), E Kavanagh for C Ryan (49), S Connolly for P Laverty (50).

Referee: Brian Coniry.