Colmcille’s made it two wins from two in the under 13 finals when they overcame Nemo Rangers in Trabeg on Sunday last. This was a much tighter affair than the A game with the lead changing hands throughout the game with the eventual winners only sealing the deal with five minutes to go.
Rory Aherne , son of team coach Ronan, got his side off to a good start. He was in midfield for the throw in, having won that, he found himself up near the goal and cooly slotted over the first point of the game. The next score though put Colmcille’s on the backfoot as the home side scored a goal and quickly added a point thereafter. A pointed free from Alex Lynam and points from play by Ronan Glavey and Joseph Foley, in between one pointed reply from Nemo, left the sides level after a quarter of hour; 1-01 to 0-04 in favour of the home side.
Nemo then went on a mini scoring spree adding the next 1-02. The goal was unfortunate from a Colmcille’s point of view as goalkeeper Jack Smith had a pulled off a great save only for the rebound to be deflected across the line. The visitors would not panic. They replied with their own 1-02 with Danny Twomey getting the goal with a rocket into the roof of the net. At the end of an absorbing half-hour, the sides went in level 2-03 to 1-06 at the break.
The first 5 minutes of the second half were almost an exact mirror of the first five in the opening thirty minutes. Rory Ahern, who was very prominent at full-forward all through the game, opened the scoring before Nemo Rangers responded with 1-01 to leave them leading by 3-04 to 1-08. Patrick Ahern then gave his side a major boost with a goal in the 8th minute. This game was now turning into an epic end-to-end contest as it was Nemo that responded best again and added the next three points from play to leave the score reading 3-07 to 2-08 at the three-quarter stage.
Then came the game’s major turning point. Full-forward Ronan Glavey with the ball-in-hand 25 yards from the goal looked up to see the Nemo keeper off his line and cleverly and calmly lobbed him from there. Colmcille’s lead by one again. Nemo would equalize but the momentum was definitely now with the away side. Alex Lynam slotted away a penalty in the 20th minute after he had pointed a free a minute earlier. There would be a few more scores toward the end including a superb Sean Docherty effort. However, the last 10 minutes was about the effort of the defenders in keeping the home side at bay. Padraig Tattan was outstanding throughout ably assisted by Daniel Magner at center-back, Cooper Coleman, Kyle Conway and Jack Foley. In the end Colmcille’s won a cracking game by six points. Massive congratulations must go to coach Ronan Aherne and his selectors Neil Twomey, Michael Foley, Jamie Coleman and Mark Cunningham.
TEAM
1 – Jack Smith
2 – Jack Foley
3 – Ruairi Harte
4 – Cooper Coleman
5 – Kyle Conway
6 – Daniel Magner
7 – Padraig Tattan
8 – Alex Lynam (1-03; 1-02 frees/penalty)
9 – Danny Twomey
10 – Sean McSweeney
11 – Oscar O’Connell
12 – Patrick Ahern
13 – Joshua Holmes
14 – Ronan Glavey (1-02)
15 – Rory Ahern (0-02)
SUBS USED: Sean Docherty (0-01), Gearoid Hayes, Joseph Foley (0-01), Ross O’Donovan