Roche Emmets 1-12
Glen Emmets 0-14
Eight points from Barry O'Hare and a goal from Liam Carthy combined to send Roche Emmets into their first Junior Championship Final in almost 60 years where they will take on Naomh Fionnbarra.
O'Hare's pointed free a minute from time settled a thrilling semi-final final a at Clan na Gael Park on Friday night and in the process ended Glen Emmets hopes of making up for the disappointment of losing last year's final.
The Tullyallen men played their part in an entertaining encounter but were left to rue a series of missed chances in the second half when they failed to press home their advantage.
As a result Roche were able to dig deep in the final five minutes and showed great character to clinch a dramatic victory.
In a game that was played at a fast pace throughout, Roche came flying out of the blocks and had early points from Eugene Murray and O'Hare, while Kevin Callaghan was denied a goal by the width of the post.
The Emmets settled into the game and drew level wit the help of Conor Grimes and Ronan Grufferty, before three points in succession from Eamonn Mullen saw them lead by 0-7 to 0-3.
Roche fought back with two points and again were denied a goal when Emmet Hughes saw his effort superbly saved by Fergus Barnett and O'Hare was denied in the follow up by the post.
It was the Tullyallen men who finished the half on top with points from Grimes and Mullen to lead by 0-9 to 0-5.
In the opening six minutes of the half O'Hare dragged Roche back into the game with three successive points, before Grufferty and Dan O'Connell then traded scores to leave the Tullyallen outfit 0-10 to 0-9 ahead on 41 minutes.
The South Louth side should have added to that tally over the next five minutes as they wasted a number of chances and they were made pay when Callaghan cut in from the right and set up Carthy for a close range finish.
However, the response from the Glen Emmets was impressive as two quick fire points from Grimes and Ronan Carr had them level, before another brace from David Bracken and James Butler put them 0-14 to 1-9 in front with five minutes left.
When O'Hare and Callaghan pointed at the other end the teams were level with just four minutes to play and it looked as if they would have to settle for a replay.
However, Barry O'Hare had other ideas and he tapped over a 20m free for what proved to be the winning score.
ROCHE EMMETS: Jamie O'Hare; Joe Bishop, Harry O'Connell 0-1, Duane Callan; Conor Treanor, Aaron Callan, Gerry Murphy; Daniel O'Connell 0-1, Eugene Murray 0-1; Conor Carthy, Liam Carthy 1-0, David O'Connell; Kevin Callaghan 0-1, Emmet Hughes, Barry O'Hare 0-8. Subs: Dermot Carthy for David O'Connell.
GLEN EMMETS: Fergus Barnett; Tom Grimes, Andrew Mooney, Niall Hackett; Keith Boylan, Stephen Healy, Ronan Carr 0-1; Mark Garvey, Robert Byrne; Keith Lynch, David Bracken 0-1, Damien Grimes; Ronan Grufferty 0-3 (1f, 1 45), Conor Grimes 0-4, Eamonn Mullen 0-4. Subs: Sean Byrne for R Byrne, James Butler 0-1 for R Grufferty.
Tweet