Holders Na Piarsaigh strike late to see off Kilmallock in Limerick senior hurling semi-final:
By John Redington Limerick Leader Sport
HOLDERS Na Piarsaish booked a return to the Bon Secours Limerick senior hurling championship final after securing a dramatic 1-16 to 0-18 semi-final victory over Kilmallock at a wet Mick Neville Park in Rathkeale yesterday.
A late point from Will Henn proved the decisive score in Na Piarsaigh’s hard fought victory.
Limerick’s dominant team of the past decade will hardly get a tougher test of their self-belief than a game in which they were coming off second best until a fortunate goal with ten regulation minutes to go knocked the stuffing out of the Balbac’s painstakingly-constructed lead and allowed the Caherdavin side to dredge the depths of their match-winning skills to qualify for the final against Doon.
Although there was little to separate the sides in a game of alternating periods of dominance, Kilmallock’s greater confidence in shooting from distance, particularly in their wind-assisted first half, gave them an edge that their opponents struggled to match.
However, it wasn’t until moments before they conceded the match-altering goal that they looked to have built up enough of a lead to weather whatever the champions could throw at them.
Like any old dog used to the hard road, Na Piarsaigh hung in long enough until they found the break they could exploit and, for that, they can thank their full-back line who held their shape right through the hour. Just one of Kilmallock’s scores from play came from inside 50 metres and even that was from a late shot from a tight angle way out on the right.
Kilmallock laid out their stall right from the throw-in, collecting whatever possession they gained around the middle to aim at the posts which delivered points from Conor Hanley Clarke and Mícheál Houlihan and, after Ronan Lynch replying from a free, another pair from Hanley Clarke and Pierce Connery to put them three points ahead.
However, the Northsiders settled down once they began to dominate off the puckout, drawing a foul for Lynch to punish and their first point from play from JJ Carey. He found the target again after Connery replied.
Baalbec got themselves back on track once play opened up a bit in the middle third and slick passing to the man in space allowed them to take control again with a Connery point, a huge Paddy O’Loughlin free and Hanley Clark pointing from play and from a free.
However, coming up to the break, they got caught again on the puckout as Lynch notched points from a free, then from a ’65’ after Conor Boylan’s shot was saved on the line and another free.
Going into added time, Kilmallock drew two more fouls for Hanley Clarke to punish and lead 0-11 to 0-7 going into the dressing-room.
The champions pulled those two late scores back when Keith Dempsey and Lynch’s ’65’ found the mark within minutes of the restart.
Shane O’Brien then replied with a point for Kilmallock and, coming off a lightning run up the left from way out, Oisín O’Reilly could have opened up a serious Kilmallock lead had Shane Dowling not stopped his screamer on the line.
Keeping up the pressure, however, they added a Hanley Clarke pointed free and, after Lynch’s reply, were looking good when they added another pair of pointed frees going through the three-quarter mark.
Then disaster struck. Bottled up by the Baalbec defence, Lynch’s shot bobbled out to deceive Barry Hennessy and into the net.
Before their opponents could settle, Mike Foley and Will Henn drew Na Piarsaigh level with points, before Wayne Kearns had them leading for the first time with five regulation minutes to go.
Hanley Clarke’s equalising free steadied the Kilmallock ship, but the lead point from Robbie Hanley was quickly met and overtaken by a pair of Lynch frees before O’Reilly equalised from a tight angle out on the right only for Henn to point after collecting the break from the resulting puckout and strike over what proved to be the match-winning score
The drama did not end there, however, as Conor Staunton burst up the centre, and saw his shot rattle off the defenders in front of him before Baalbec’s last chance to save their season ended when a long Hanley Clarke free drifting just wide.
SCORERS: NA PIARSAIGH: Ronan Lynch 1-9 (0-6 frees, 0-2 ’65’s), JJ Carey, Will Henn 0-2 each, Keith Dempsey, Mike Foley, Wayne Kearns 0-1 each; KILMALLOCK: Conor Hanley Clarke 0-10 (0-7 frees), Pierce Connery, Oisín O’Reilly 0-2 each, Micheál Houlihan, Paddy O’Loughlin (free), Shane O’Brien, Robbie Hanley 0-1 each.
NA PIARSAIGH: Shane Dowling; Vince Harrington, Mike Casey, Emmet McEvoy; Mike Foley, William O’Donoghue, Jerome Boylan; Ronan Lynch, Tommy Grimes; JJ Carey, Will Henn, Keith Dempsey; Kevin Downes, Conor Boylan, Dylan Lynch. SUBS: Adrian Breen for Keith Dempsey (half-time), Seán Long for Tommy Grimes (55 minutes), John Fitzgerald for JJ Carey (58 minutes), Wayne Kearns for Dylan Lynch (59 minutes), Gearóid Synott for Emmet McEvoy (injured, 63 minutes).
KILMALLOCK: Barry Hennessy; Liam English, Dan Joy, Aaron Costello; Robbie Hanley, Kevin O’Donnell, Paddy O’Loughlin; Conor Hanley Clarke, Micheál Houlihan; Pierce Connery, Graeme Mulcahy, Oisín O’Reilly; Gavin O’Mahony, Shane O’Brien, Phelim O’Reilly. SUBS: Conor Staunton for Gavin O’Mahony (46 minutes), Tom Savage for Pierce Connery (55 minutes).
REFEREE: Kieran Guina (Feohanagh).