From 7th October Evening Echo.
Last year’s beaten finalists, Whitechurch, have qualified for the semi-finals of the AOS Seandún Junior A Hurling Championship. They will meet Blackrock, after they came from behind to defeat White’s Cross at Ballinlough.
Whitechurch were defensive initially and scoring opportunities rare. Seven of their scores came from frees. Whitechurch played a more open game thereafter.
Whitechurch restricted White’s Cross to a single score after the break, as the bulk of Whitechurch’s scores came from placed-balls. Whitechurch got the game’s only goal in stoppage time to take a six-point lead, while Eddie Coughlan’s shot for White’s Cross went narrowly wide.
White’s Cross made the better start (Eddie Coughlan gave them a three-point lead), before Whitechurch opened their account with a point by Jamie Hegarty.
White’s Cross doubled their lead with points from play by Donncha Murnane and Conor Buckley. Coughlan also chipped in with a free. Sean Keane and Hegarty replied with a point from play each for Whitechurch.
Whitechurch’s Sean O’Reilly and Micheál Mullins each tagged on points from play and Egan slotted over a further two frees. Persistent fouling was proving to be costly for Whitechurch as Coughlan converted five frees. This gave White’s Cross an interval lead of 0-11 to 0-7.
Whitechurch’s Ross Buckley exchanged points from play with Harry Coughlan a minute after the resumption, before Whitechurch seized the initiative.
Egan converted his second free for Whitechurch, followed by a point from play by Mullins. Mark Callanan slotted over a hat-trick of frees, to put Whitechurch in the driving seat. Egan added two pointed frees in the dying minutes and Mullins got the game’s only goal from the edge of the White’s Cross square in stoppage time.
WHITECHURCH: C Mulcahy; C Kelleher, B O’Sullivan, J Dennehy; J Kelly, M Mullins, R Buckley; M Callanan, S O’Reilly; A Kelleher, S Keane, R O’Connell; J Hegarty, D O’Sullivan, C Egan.
Subs: D Burke for Egan (temp, 13-16), Burke for B O’Sullivan (h/t), K Ryan for Kelly (55).
WHITE’S CROSS: S Cahill; K Buckley, M Kelleher, S Ryan; M Philpott, G Fleming, PJ O’Donovan; H Coughlan, D Murnane; S Whooley, S Quinlan, C Quinlan; J McElhinney, C Buckley, E Coughlan.
Subs: T Casey for Buckley (34), A O’Neill for Whooley (44), B Quain for C Quinlan (51).
Scorers for Whitechurch: M Mullins 1-2; C Egan 0-5 (0-4 f); M Callanan 0-3 f; J Hegarty 0-2; S Keane, S O’Reilly, R Buckley 0-1.
White’s Cross: E Coughlan 0-9 (0-7 f); D Murnane, C Buckley, H Coughlan 0-1 each.