St Joseph's denied as marvellous Maher inspires Bal'
Ballynacargy 1-15 St Joseph's 2-6
Ballynacargy's scoring proficiency stood them in good stead as they dispatched a hard-working St Joseph's in round three of the Westmeath Junior 1 Football Championship at Ballymore GAA last Saturday.
This was an entertaining and free flowing game played in perfect conditions. The firm footing and slight breeze made the evening a pleasant experience for the spectator as well as the players, but the Ballynacargy team and supporters were the ones who benefited most from the experience.
Though St Joseph's kept themselves in contention up to the final whistle, Bal' were full value for their win. A late surge by the Streamstown side excited their fans, but it was not enough to shore up the significant advantage the men in blue and gold had amassed.
The two teams played a decent tempo, but Bal' were more dogged in defence and slightly more efficient in attack.
Early scores for Ballynacargy settled them into a rhythm and the ability of forwards like Troy Maher to continue to keep the scoreboard consistently ticking over was the main factor in their success.
Eoin Nally and Jack Penrose got the blue and gold men off to a good start in the opening minutes with well taken points. Penrose almost immediately doubled his team's haul with an impressive two-pointer free.
Though the scores in the opening eight minutes were all for Ballynacargy, their opponents mounted several well worked attacks. It took a Jordan McDonnell free kick that went over via the upright to get St Joseph's off the mark.
The aforementioned Maher reinforced Ballynacargy's advantage with two consecutive points. Before the first half concluded, a goal from Frankie Day and a two-pointer by McDonnell kept Joseph's in the race, while further Troy Maher scores were augmented by Ryan Maher and Jamie Loran for their opponents.
The early exchanges of the second half failed to deliver the rewards of the opening act. Although both sides worked themselves into good positions, it was either staunch defending, misplaced passes or a combination of both that saw successive attacks break down as they approached the scoring zone.
The first ten minutes after the sus beag were somewhat draining for the team ahead on the scoreboard. With 40 minutes on the clock, Bal' looked like they had burned through the fuel reserves, but by executing an impressive high fetch before turning into space and burying the ball in the net Troy Maher restarted the engines. The scoreboard flashed up 1-10 to 1-4, and the six-point gap did not feel out of place.
It looked as if the Streamstown team were immediately going to find an appropriate reply. A fisted ball across the square saw Jordan McDonnell go full stretch to flick the ball toward the net, but this time the intervention came courtesy of the crossbar. A counter attack featuring another link up between Troy Maher and Loran pushed on the Bal' advantage.
A two-pointer from Jordan McDonnell and superb goal by Dylan McDonnell was all St Joseph's could muster in that portion of the game. This haul failed to convey the number of times they worked into scoring positions, only to fall short.
A Troy Maher black card with three minutes to play, after he intervened in someone else's dispute, was a penalty his manager will cope with. The free scoring forward had done enough for the team at that stage. St Joseph's were industrious in the closing minutes, but the extra man failed to yield any additional score.
Man of the match: In the normal run of things a black card is sufficient to rule a player out of contention, but Ballynacargy's Troy Maher made too significant a contribution to be overlooked. Jamie Loran also impressed for the winners. For St Joseph's, it would be hard to look past Jordan McDonnell.
Scorers - Ballynacargy: T Maher 1-6; J Penrose (1tp) and R Maher (1tp) 0-3 each; J Loran 0-2; E Nally 0-1. St Joseph's: J McDonnell 0-6 (2tp); F Day and D McDonnell 1-0 each.
Ballynacargy - Thomas Nally; James Baird, Gary Fagan, Niall Peyton; Conor Byrne, Ciaran Sheridan, Niall Ouchbakou; Jack Doran, Jack Penrose; Troy Maher, Eoin Nally, Conor Keena; Ryan Maher, James Ruisinger, Jamie Loran.
St Joseph's - Sean Elliffe; Pearse Weir Norris, Mikey Lynam, Brian Fitzgerald; Frankie Day, Daniel Keegan, Andy Scally; Jordan McDonnell, Noah McDonnell; Aaron McDonnell, Dylan McDonnell, Jake Gannon; Alan Conlon, Niall Moran, Dean Slevin.
Referee - Vinny Cox (Rosemount).