St. Eunan’s qualified for the Donegal Under 14A Hurling Championship Final with a win over Burt in O’Donnell Park on Thursday.
St. Eunan’s 7-15 Burt 4-3
The home team started strongly, with early points from Oisin Donnelly, Kieran Browne and Patrick Fotso followed by a 6th minute goal from dangerous corner forward John Kealy.
Eoin Strain opened Burt’s account with a 10th minute point. Kealy extended St. Eunan’s lead with another goal and a point midway through the half, before John Gallagher struck a long range free to the net for Burt.
A Kealy point from the wing and a goal from the outstanding Peter Kelly in the 20th minute pushed the Letterkenny boys further ahead. Burt then had their best spell of the half, when a Sean Kirwan goal was quickly followed by a Joshua McCool point. St. Eunan’s finished the half a goal and two points from Kelly and a long range effort from PJ Gallagher, leaving the half-time score 4-8 to 2-2.
On the resumption, Kelly, Gallagher and Dylan Gibbons pointed for the home team. The young visiting team needed a response to keep the game alive.
With McCool and Leo Donnelly providing possession to their potent forward line, a John Gallagher point was followed by a fine finish to the net from Ciaran McColgan on 38 minutes.
However, the comeback was stopped in its tracks with another Kelly point and two PJ Gallagher goals midway through the half, the second of which was a close range finish after a strong run through the Burt defence. Browne scored two further points for the home team. John Gallagher and PJ Gallagher exchanged points before Kealy goaled again in the 53rd minute. Kirwan closed the scoring for a Burt team that battled to the end with a strike to the net in a crowded square.
St. Eunan’s will go forward to play Aodh Rua in the county final on Thursday June 14th.
St. Eunan’s: Leon Halligan, JP Curran, Conor Neely, Brendan Gaffey, Stephen Browne, Johnny Lambe, David Horgan, Peter Kelly, PJ Gallagher, Dylan Gibbons, Kieran Browne, Patrick Fotso, Shane Malone, Oisin Donnelly, John Kealy. Subs: Conor Dunne, Ethan Mulholland, Killian Barr, Marcus Murphy.
Burt: Ciaran Porter, Michael Doherty, Colm Toland, Michael McGill, Aidan McKenna, Leo Donnelly, Adam Devlin, John Gallagher, Joshua McCool, Odhran Devlin, Sean Kirwan, Eoin Strain, Ryan Cleary, Ciaran McColgan. Subs: Conor Harkin, Oisin Crean, Fionn O’Riordan, Matthew Robinson, Padraig McDermott.
