Second half blitz sets Banagher College on course for victory in North Leinster Final

An early second half blitz put  Banagher College on course for victory in the North Leinster Junior Hurling Final on Tuesday afternoon.

NORTH LEINSTER JUNIOR HURLING 'B' FINAL

BANAGHER COLLEGE 2-11
MOUNTRATH CS 0-9

Level at half time, the Offaly school hit the opening 1-5 in the second half while aided with the wind to dash the hopes of the Laois school

The Mountrath men played with the aid of the breeze in the opening half but they were met with a stern defensive resistance as they went on the hunt for scores.

The Offaly school opened the scoring with a Shane Rigney point before Mountrath roared into life with two points in quick succession from Evan Quinlan and Caelum O'Brien to put them 0-2 to 0-1 ahead after four minutes.

Finn Gohery equalised for Banagher and from that juncture, the Offaly men had the better of a low scoring opening half. Scores were hard to come by with both teams wasteful in front of goals but even though Mountrath went 0-4 to 0-2 behind, they battled back with points from Ruaidhri Kavanagh and a long range free from the outstanding Tom Cuddy bringing them back level with 22 minutes on the clock.

Ricky Fitzsimons put Banagher back into the lead with the next attack but with a minute left in the half, Mountrath ensured they would go in level at the break after Tom Cuddy sailed over a '65' resulting from Emmet Bergin's effort for goal being deflected out for a '65'.

Banagher then cut loose in the opening 10 minutes of the second half. Points from Finn Gohery (two), Shane Rigney, Aaron Molloy and Niall Flannery were followed by an outstanding solo goal from Gohery to put them 1-10 to 0-5 up on 40 minutes.

Playing against the wind, that margin was always going to be hard to claw back but Mountrath made a good fist of it and hit the next three points from Tom Cuddy (two) and Cian Hill to bring it back to a five point game - 1-10 to 0-8 with 10 minutes to go.

They needed a goal and while they did come close on a few occasions, the Banagher defence held strong before a late burst from substitute Callum Hogan put the gloss on the scoreline. He fired over a point before Ricky Fitzsimons put a goal on a plate for him.

Tom Cuddy saw a late free deflected over the bar but that proved to be the last score of the game with Banagher College recording an impressive win.

BANAGHER COLLEGE

Scorers: Finn Gohery 1-4 (0-3 frees), Callum Hogan 1-1, Shane Rigney and Aaron Molloy 0-2 each, Niall Flannery, Ricky Fitzsimons 0-1 each.

Team: Eanna Mulhare (St Rynagh's); Shane McDermott (Meelick/Eyrecourt), Rob Duffy (Lorrha/Dorrha), Daire Daly (St Rynagh's); Morgan Glynn (Lusmagh), Mark Kilkenny (Kiltormer), Eric Rigney (St Rynagh's); Shane Rigney (St Rynagh's), Luke Bowe (Lusmagh); Aaron Molloy (St Rynagh's), Finn Gohery (Meelick/Eyrecourt), Niall Flannery (St Rynagh's); Ricky Fitzsimons (Birr), Shain Cleary (Lorrha/Dorrha), Darragh Scully (St Rynagh's). Subs: Callum Hogan (Lusmagh) for Shain Cleary, Evan Mannion (Meelick/Eyrecourt) for Morgan Glynn, Kian Costello (St Rynagh's) for Aaron Molloy.

MOUNTRATH CS

Scorers: Tom Cuddy 0-5 (0-4 frees, 0-1 '65'), Evan Quinlan, Cian Hill, Ruaidhri Kavanagh and Caelum O’Brien 0-1 each 

Team: Rick Bannon (Camross); Ray Goode (Castletown), Dion Cuddy (Mountrath), Eoin Brennan (Mountrath); Corey Doheny (Mountrath), Tom Cuddy (Camross), Josh Hynes (Camross); Joe Pearson (Clough-Ballacolla), Aaron Carroll (Camross); Evan Quinlan (Borris-Kilcotton), Caelum O’Brien (Mountrath), Ryan Peters (Castletown); Ruaidhri Kavanagh (Mountrath), Emmet Bergin (Camross), Kyle Moore (Mountrath). Subs: Cian Hill (Mountrath) for Ruaidhri Kavanagh (13, inj), Tom Og Phelan (Castletown) for Kyle Moore (26), Ashton Keenan (Camross) for Rick Bannon (48, inj), Conor Mortimer (Camross) for Emmet Bergin (53)

REFEREE: Pat Moran (Laois)