Ogs go for the Kill’
Pearse Ogs 0-11 Killeavy 0-9
Pearse Ogs and Killeavy played out a slow and tedious contest on Monday evening with both teams setting up defensively while their forward units failed to make the most of the limited opportunities presented to them. It was an eight minute second half purple patch that secured victory for the home side when they hit four unanswered points.
Killeavy opened the scoring in the 5th minute when Paul Quinn pounced on a poor kick out and fired his side in front. Justin Graham swung over a free minutes later to level the tie after the hard working James Freeman had been fouled. The sides continued to trade scores with Cathair McKinney and Caolan McConville (45) seeing their points matched by James Freeman and Marc Cullen.
Cullen hit his second five minutes before the interval following good work from Eoin Heaney to set up the corner forward. The tit for tat nature of the game continued and the sides were once again tied as Conor Magennis pointed with the final score of the half to see both sides finish the first 30 minutes with 0-4.
The second half kicked off similar to the first with the visiting side landing the opening score with an individual effort coming from Conor O’Neill inside the opening 60 seconds. Anto Duffy really came into his own in the second period and levelled the contest with his first score of the game.
The Ogs edged in front two minutes later when James Freeman continued his good form from the opening period and kicked a brilliant point from a tricky angle. Once again Killeavy replied with an equalising point from a Caolan McConville free while Ben Hughes also split the posts to give his side a narrow one point advantage.
Then the Pearse Ogs scoring spree came as they raised four white flags in an eight minute period to go ahead by three, the biggest margin separating the sides all evening. Justin Graham came to the fore with three points during this period, two of which came from the dead ball.
The levelling score came with the best move of the night. Pearse Ogs forced a turnover in their defensive third and a wonderful pass from Anto Duffy found his brother Paul who in turned directed the ball straight to Justin Graham who split the posts to level the score with both teams now sitting on 0-7.
Graham added a second with a free before Anto Duffy’s left footed effort sailed between the posts to give Pearse Ogs a two point cushion. Graham again stepped up to convert a placed ball as his long range shot effortlessly swung over the black spot with three now the difference and 12 minutes remaining.
Killeavy battled hard to remain in the contest and tagged on a score from Niall Magennis before Graham hit another free kick to maintain the Ogs three point advantage. Caolan McConville stroked over a free of his own but it wasn’t enough to salvage something from the game as Pearse Ogs were victorious by two points, 0-11 to 0-9.
Pearse Ogs: Ryan Kearney, Sean Sutton, Gerard Barton, Liam Gilsenan, Shea Freeman, Vincy Brady, Conor McNicholl, Chris Rafferty, Justin Graham (0-5), James Freeman (0-2), Anto Duffy (0-2), Calum Murray, Marc Cullen (0-2), Eoghan Heaney, Paul Duffy. Subs: Conor Clarke for C. Murray, Ciaran Nugent for M. Cullen.
Killeavy: Sean O’Hanlon, Ciaran McGuinness, Donal O’Neill, Gordon Magennis, Conor O’Neill (0-1), David Markey, Aodhan McEvoy, James Donnelly, Caolan McConville (0-3), Ronan McGuinness, Kyle Mallon, Ben Hughes (0-1), Cathair McKinney (0-1), Paul Quinn (0-1), Miceal McNamee. Subs: Conor Magennis (0-1) for R. McGuinness, Niall Magennis (0-1) for M. McNamee, Niall O’Neill for P. Quinn.
