St. Eunan’s overcame the challenge of Buncrana in the Donegal senior hurling championship in a hard fought affair in Buncrana on Saturday evening.
Buncrana 0-9 St. Eunan’s 1-12
Two Kevin Kealy points gave the visitors an early lead, which was cancelled out by strikes from Lee Duffy and Conor Grant on 10 minutes.
St. Eunan’s edged ahead again with a well worked long range point from Colm Flood, but a Jack O’Loughlin free in the 17th minute levelled matters. The last ten minutes of the half proved crucial in the game. A Sean McVeigh free and a point from the dangerous Kealy opened a gap for the Letterkenny men. This was followed in the 24th minute by the only goal of the match.
A long delivery from Adie Gaffey found Kealy. He burst through the Buncrana defence and laid off the ball for Eugene Organ, who gave David Guilfoyle no chance from close range.
McVeigh and O’Loughlin exchanged frees again, before the half finished with a superb point from a Sam Doherty sideline cut for the home team. This closed the gap to four points at the interval, 1-6 to 0-5.
St. Eunan’s opened the second half with determination. The half back line of Gaffey, Conor O’Grady and Conor Parke provided a strong platform and the visitors dominated possession in midfield. McVeigh was finding space and struck two well worked points on 33 and 38 minutes.
However, with O’Loughlin, Kevin Vaughan and Paddy Wilson outstanding in the home defence, Buncrana came back into the game. O’Loughlin hit a long pointed free and Doherty repeated his feat of the first half with another score from a sideline cut.
Moving into the last ten minutes, St. Eunan’s pushed the gap out to seven points with two McVeigh frees and a score by Organ following good build up play.
Tom Clare pointed two frees for Buncrana but had a late 20 metre free saved. Organ finished the scoring with a 65, leaving six points between the sides at the finish.
[adrotate group=”68″]St. Eunan’s: Colm Breathnach, Eunan O’Donnell, Conor McVeigh, Caoimhin Lennon, Adie Gaffey, Conor O’Grady, Conor Parke, Colm Flood (0-1), Stephen Doherty, Aaron O’Connell, Seán McVeigh (0-6, 4f), Sean Halvey, Kevin Kealy (0-3), Eugene Organ (1-2, 1 65), Gearóid Leahy. Subs: Ciarán Kelly, Sean McBride, Eoin Scanlon, John McIntyre, Paddy Flood, Noel Gorman.
Buncrana: Declan McCarron, Paddy Wilson, Donal McLaughlin, James Doherty, Kevin Vaughan, Jack O’Loughlin (0-3, 3 frees), Aedan Stokes, Paul Nelson, Conor Grant (0-1), Daniel Wilson, Sam Doherty (0-2), Tom Clare (0-2, 2f), Enda O’Rourke, Lee Duffy (0-1), Ronan Walsh. Subs: David Doherty, Conor O’Rourke, Michael Gallagher, David Guilfoyle, Darren Doherty.
