Dunboyne 1-20 Rathmolyon 2-16

St Peters added the U21A hurling championship title to last month’s Minor Div 2 title in a rip roaring tie at a chilly Dunganny on Sunday afternoon. Photos

Rathmolyon tore into the game right from the throw-in and registered the first score of the game within the first 10 seconds. The next 12 minutes proved scoreless as both defences were on top in a seriously physical game with the game sparking into life when Simon Cunningham finished a neat left hand strike to the back of the net for the Dunboyne lads. Aidan Flynn was causing havoc with his direct running up the right wing and causing all sorts of problems for the Rathmolyon defence, but it was St Peters captain and man of the match, Peter Doherty, who kept the scoreboard ticking over with two converted frees just before the 1st water break, leaving the score Dunboyne 1:02, Rathmolyon 0:01.

Simon Cunningham got the first score of the second quarter but this was responded to immediately through the Rathmolyon centre-forward and the ‘Village’ pulled another point back 5 minutes later, this time from a placed ball. But from then to the half time whistle it was all Dunboyne. The lively Joe Humphries didn’t get the score his game deserved while Cathal Melia and the full back had a ding-dong battle for the ages, no quarter given. The physicality of Darragh Finlay around the middle third was a match for the opposition and helped Peter Doherty split the posts twice in the 25th and 26th minutes, with the Dunboyne captain also registering a point from a free. Simon Cunningham posted another point in injury time and there was still time enough for Doherty to get one more from a placed ball. This left the scores at half time Dunboyne 1:08, Rathmolyon 0:3.

Rathmolyon were the quickest out of the traps again at the start of the second half, whipping over a smart point from play and followed it up with a ’65 in the 3rd minute. Eoghan McCormack was having his best game of the championship and shifted plenty of tasty ball into the Dunboyne forward division.  Doherty pushed the lead out again with two converted frees before Rathmolyon pulled one back from a placed ball. Josh Harford got his first score of the game in the 9th minute of the second half but Rathmolyon responded with two well taken points from play. The team in green were in the ascendancy now and could smell blood. But the defence led by the excellent Ciaran Lonergan stood tall. Cian Smyth in the Dunboyne goal then pulled off not one but two world class saves that would not have looked out of place in Croke Park. Simply breath-taking! Just before the second water break Harford got in for his second score leaving the Dunboyne team ahead on the three quarter way 1:12 to 0:08.

But, not for the first time the water break upset the Dunboyne momentum. While Rathmolyon went into the water break trailing by 7 points, they out-scored the team in Black and Amber 1:04 to 0:00 with their centre back storming forward and scoring the equalising point in the 35th minute of the second half. Teams finished tied on 1:12 a-piece and the large vocal crowd had another 20 minutes to look forward to. The excellent Liam Callanan had a chance from distance at the death but went agonisingly to the left and wide.

This time the young Dunboyne men had the better start with Donal Dempsey registering two of the sweetest points ever scored in Dunganny. Peter Connolly left his purple patch for extra time and came out with the ball time and time again during these minutes. Simon Cunningham again got in on the act with another super strike before Peter Doherty registered another from the placed ball. Daire Rohan had a massive effort from 70 yards just waved wide before Rathmolyon got the next two from play to pull back the deficit. The classy Cunningham got another massive score to bring the half time scoring in extra-time to a close with Dunboyne leading by 3 points, 1:17 to 1:14.

Doherty got two points at the start of the 2nd half, one from a placed ball, before Rathmolyon pulled those two back by the 8th minute. Doherty, who now resembled the classic Terry Butcher picture from the 1980’s, aced another free in the 14th minute of the half to put 4 points between the teams and looked very much like the insurance score. Simon O’Keefe had ran his legs off for the 80+ minutes and went down with serious cramp with 3 minutes left but recovered to finish the game strong. The Village were attacking in waves now but Adam O’Connor stood tall at no. 6 and did brilliantly in disposing his direct marker without fouling on a dangerous run into the Dunboyne half, pure class. One minute later the excellent Rathmolyon midfielder got his and his team’s second goal but thankfully it was too little too late and the final whistle blew on the resultant Smyths puck out. Dunboyne, after a great U21 hurling championship where they had already  accounted for Kiltale and Kilmessan (also after extra time) over the previous two weekends, had crossed the finish line by the minimum, 1:20 to 2:16.

The cup was presented to Dunboyne captain, Peter Doherty amid glorious scenes of celebration and brought the curtain down on a great year for the St Peters club.

Dunboyne: Cian Smyth; Simon O’Keefe; Ciaran Lonergan; Peter Connolly; Aidan Flynn; Adam O’Connor; Liam Callanan; Eoghan McCormack; Darragh Finlay; Daire Rohan; Peter Doherty © (0:12, 0:09f); Josh Harford (0:02); Joe Humphries; Cathal Melia; Simon Cunningham (1:04);

Subs: Johnny Pearl for D. Finlay; Martin Campbell for C.Melia; Donal Dempsey (0:02) for J. Humphries; Evan McCrudden for L. Callanan; Oisin Fitzmaurice for J.Harford; Conor Leonard; Cillian Murphy; Conor Deering; Cathal Kissane; Sean Melia;

 

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