COUNTY UNDER-12 A FOOTBALL CHAMPIONS
Carrigaline 1-15 Charleville 2-4
Carrigaline were crowned U12 A County football champions for the second time at the magnificent Mallow GAA Complex on Sunday evening last.
Having knocked Douglas out at the semi-final stage, Carrig entered the game as favourites but were made to fight hard by a game Charleville side which had a number of excellent individual players. Carrigaline were the better balanced team and fully deserved their win.
It was a great team performance by Carrigaline but there were some stand-out displays by Adam Williamson and Sean Gray in defence, Barry Ryan at midfield and Caleb O’Connell and man-of-the-match Billy Pope in the forward line.
David Griffin was rock-solid throughout and kept a tight rein on the Charleville full-forward and wing-back Colin Maguire was rarely beaten. Centre-back, Niall Quirke had a very solid game, Kieran Dwane worked hard all through at midfield while Stephen Williamson and Evan Ryle performed well in the pivotal forward positions. Caleb O Connell made some telling runs in the forward line and was always available to receive passes from the half-backs and midfielders. Indeed if the Carrig lads had their shooting boots in the first period, playing into the strong breeze, they could have been out of sight at the interval.
Billy Pope, who got 1-6 of the total, was tormentor-in-chief in the second half and showed the coolness of a veteran as he took each of his scores.
Despite playing against the wind, Barry Ryan opened the scoring for Carrigaline after three minutes. However, Charleville found their feet and and reeled off three points in succession to lead 0-3 to 0-1 at the end of the first quarter.
Two points from Barry Ryan and one from Billy Pope put Carrigaline back in front with 28 minutes played. Charleville then got a goal when a high wind-assisted ball into the goalmouth deceived the keeper to go straight to the net. Charleville added a point and Caleb O’Connell had the final point of the half to see Charleville lead 1-4 to 0-5 at the break.
Now playing with the wind, Carrigaline got off to a great start with points from Barry Ryan and Evan Ryle in the first couple of minutes to level the game. Billy Pope put Carrigaline in front in the fortieth minute and then swiftly added two more to stretch the lead. Further points from Ryan, Ryle and Pope had Carrig six to the good entering the final ten minutes.
Charleville were back in the game after 52 minutes when they goaled to make it 2-4 to 0-13 and leave only three points between the teams. Almost immediately Carrigaline worked the ball down the field and Billy Pope was on the end of the move to goal for his side and kill off the Charleville comeback.
He was on target again with two minutes to go and Steven Williamson got the last score of the game to see Carrigaline run out deserving winners.
Following the game the cup was presented to the Carrig captain, Kieran Dwane, by Mícheál McSweeney, Secretary of the County Juvenile Board.
Congratulations to the entire panel and management team of Sean Ryle, Brian Reynolds, Tony Corcoran, Pat Williamson and Pat Griffin on a wonderful achievement.
Scorers for Carrig: B Pope 1-6, B Ryan 0-5 (0-2f), E Ryle 0-2, C O’Connell,
S Williamson 0-1 each
Carrigaline Panel: Graham Bowdren, Peter O’Reilly, David Griffin, Adam Williamson, Colin Maguire, Niall Quirke, Sean Gray; Kieran Dwane, Barry Ryan,
Billy Pope, Stephen Williamson, Oran Buckley, Colm O’Reilly, Evan Ryle,
Caleb O’Connell.
Subs used: Peter Stack for Adam Williamson, Cian Drinan for Peter O’Reilly, Stephen Walsh for Evan Ryle, Stephen O’Reilly for Caleb O’Connell, Elijah Kadi-Harrington for Colm O’Reilly.
Mathew Cotter, Fionn Dalton, Simon Darcy, Dean Foley, Sean Goulding, Sean Kent, Luke Kenny, Shane Livesey, James Lordan, Dylan Murphy, Emmett O’Mahony, Cian O’Neill, Cian O’Sullivan, Joey Power, John Reynolds, David Thomas.