Dublin SFC round-up
May 18, 2010On Friday evening, Ballyboden opened their title defence with an emphatic 1-17 to 0-8 win over Trinity Gaels at Parnell Park, where 0-8 from centre-forward Daniel Davey helped them cruise to victory.
Despite being without Conal Keaney through injury, the southsiders won pulling up in this encounter as they built on a half-time lead in the second-half before Sean Gibbons struck the game's only goal in the last quarter and Davey fired over four points in the closing stages to help his team lay down an early marker.
In the earlier game at Parnell Park, Kilmacud Crokes recorded an impressive win over Parnells by 3-12 to 1-10.
Parnells were handed the perfect start by Niall Collins when he found the back of the net inside the first six minutes, but Crokes responded brilliantly and blasted in two goals from Darren Magee and Mark Coughlan past Stephen Cluxton to take in a 2-5 to 1-6 lead at the break.
In the second-half, Mark Vaughan ruled to roost as pointed on three occasions before Pat Burke struck for goal number three to ensure there would be no way back for Parnells.
In Crumlin, UCD and Thomas Davis served up a thrilling clash which saw the students edge the win by 2-10 to 1-9.
The game had been on a knife-edge for the first 50 minutes, with Thomas Davis leading by a point at the interval, but when UCD shot two goals in the space of a minute through Ciaran Lyng and John O'Loughlin it was too much of an ask for their opponents to recover in the time remaining.
At Russell Park, Lucan Sarsfields got their campaign off to a flying start as they saw off Clontarf with four points to spare.
Having trailed by 0-7 to 0-5 at the short whistle, Clontarf managed to cut their deficit down to the minimum thanks to the frees of Ian O'Dwyer, who finished with 0-6 to his name, but scores from Declan O'Shaughnessy and substitutes Noel Flynn and James O'Neill was enough to hand Sars the win.
A decisive 1-12 tally from Ciaran Dignam proved more than enough for Na Fianna as they over came Whitehall Colmcille by 2-16 to 1-6.
Whitehall had made the better start but only had 0-1 to show for it in the opening ten minutes and Na Fianna punished them when Dignam crashed in the game's first goal after 12 minutes.
That paved the way for his side's dominance as they took in a seven-point lead at the turn over and in the second-half they put their foot on the throttle and could even afford to concede 1-3 from Stephen Walsh midway through the half.
At Newcastle, Ballinteer St John's edged out St Peregrine's by 1-12 to 0-13 to claim an opening win.
Padraig O'Connor led the way for the winners in the first-half with four points from play to help his side to a slender one-point lead at half-time.
Peregrine's raced out of the traps for the second-half and kicked three unanswered points to storm into the lead, but a Ciaran Judge goal proved a major turning point in the 44th minute and St John's held on for victory.
On Saturday night, extra-time was required at O'Toole Park to separate Nh Mearnog and Templeogue Synge St with a late goal from Fergal O'Gara clinching a 3-9 to 3-7 win for the latter.
Mearnog led 2-4 to 0-9 at half-time in normal time as goals from Stephen McHale (penalty) and Ryan O'Sullivan got their noses in front.
A penalty from Denis Bastick ten minutes into restart inspired Synger though and when Conor McKiernan finished a great move to the net they looked to be on their way.
However, another McHale penalty and a long-range free from John Madden out the Portmarnock men on the winning path with the finish-line in sight, before Eoin McKiernan sent over a vital score to force extra-time, where O'Gara's late score made the difference.
Meanwhile in Naul, there was also late drama as Conor Maguire the hearts of St Mary's, Saggart, to seal St Maurs' 2-7 to 0-12 triumph.
In a nip and tuck match, the teams looked destined for extra-time after Mark McGrath and Ciaran Reddin had both hit the net for St Maurs, but the northerners were spared the drama when Maguire popped up to raise the white flag in injury-time. Tweet
