Credit Union County Senior Football League, Division 2, Round 9.
Beaufort 2-12, Templenoe 1-15.
Beaufort and Templenoe served up an entertaining encounter with an exciting finish that ended in a draw for the second year running at Beaufort GAA Grounds last Saturday evening.
The game was played on a beautiful evening with the slight breeze favouring Templenoe in the first half. Beaufort opened the scoring with a pointed free from Darragh O’Connor, Templenoe countered with a placed ball effort Colin Crowley. Then Beaufort tagged on two points on the trot from Fergal Hallissey (45) and Darragh O’Connor from play, while at the other end Templenoe hit four consecutive wides on a somewhat frustrating opening quarter for the visitors. But to their credit Templenoe did tie the scores by the end of the first quarter with Aidan Crowley pointing a 45 after Beaufort keeper Fionn O’Neill had made a great save from Brian Crowley and then Brian Crowley himself split the posts to make it 3 points apiece after 15 minutes.
Darragh O’Connor and Aidan Crowley both gave an exhibition of scoring for their respective teams throughout the game with both players finishing up with 7 points each. They traded scores to make it 5 points apiece after 25 minutes and then soon after the hosts scored their first goal of the game after they opened up the Templenoe defence in a move that ended with Ciaran Kennedy planting the ball in the net. Templenoe replied with points from Sean Sheehan, Josh Crowley Holland and Aidan Crowley for a strong finish to the first half, but Beaufort still had the edge at the break after Mark Neary and Fergal Hallissey with another 45 put them two points to the good.
Half Time Score: Beaufort 1-07, Templenoe 0-08.
On resumption Colin Crowley and Ríain O'Byrne with the latter calmly slotting over his first county league point traded scores with Padraig Doona and Darragh O’Connor to keep the margin at two points. However, then the visitors hit a purple patch to score 1-03 on the bounce and lead by 1-13 to 1-09 by the end of the third quarter. It looked like a surprise result might be on the cards and the hosts who are also the table toppers were stunned. The points came from John Rice and Aidan Crowley (2), while the goal came about after good work by Aidan Crowley saw him pass the ball across the square to the unmarked Colin Crowley who palmed the ball to the net.
Beaufort probed the Templenoe defence and a speculative ball in was gathered and the referee adjudged that the Beaufort attacker was held up illegitimately by the Templenoe defence. A penalty resulted and up stepped Ronan Murphy who make no mistake with the finish. Templenoe were still just about in front, but there was still 12 minutes remaining. Points from Brian Crowley and Aidan Crowley had Templenoe two points ahead with just four minutes left, but Beaufort are not top of the table for no reason and they grinded out two late points from their sharpshooter Darragh O’Connor to earn a share of the spoils.
Final Score: Beaufort 2-12, Templenoe 1-15.
Scorers:
Beaufort: Darragh O’Connor 0-07 (3f), Ciaran Kennedy 1-01, Ronan Murphy 1-00 (pen), Fergal Hallissey 0-02 (2 45s), Mark Neary 0-01, Padraid Doona 0-01.
Templenoe: Aidan Crowley 0-07 (3f, 2 45s), Colin Crowley 1-02 (1f), Brian Crowley 0-02, Josh Crowley Holland 0-01, John Rice 0-01, Sean Sheehan 0-01, Ríain O'Byrne 0-01.
Teams:
Beaufort: Fionn O’Neill, Donnchadh Coffey, Ger Hartnett, Ciaran O’Sullivan, Nathan Breen, Ethan Coffey, Danny Healy, Mark Neary, Fergal Hallissey, Darragh O’Connor, Ciaran Kennedy, Padraig Doona, Ronan Murphy, Sean Coffey, Liam Carey.
Subs used: Liam Curran.
Templenoe: Mark Looney, Mark Casey, Kieran O’Neill, Ríain O'Byrne, Kieran McCarthy, Gavin Crowley, Martin Reilly, Sean Sheehan, John Rice, Hugh Granville, Josh Crowley Holland, Ciaran Crowley, Colin Crowley, Brian Crowley, Aidan Crowley.
Subs used: Cian Hallissey.
