Coláiste na Sceilge go down fighting
Patrick O Brien, St Fachntas, puts pressure Colaiste Na Scelige's Sean O'sullivan in their Corn Ui Mhuiri meeting in Rathmore Credit: PICTURE: LIANE TEAHAN
THEIR interest in this year's Corn Ui Mhuiri might be over but Coláiste na Sceilge went down fighting in their winner-take-all duel with St Fachtna's, Skibbereen.
With the victor from this final Group A match in Rathmore to join St Brendan's College in the quarter-finals, everything was on the line for the Kerry school, who just faded in the second half despite leading by three points, 0-8 to 0-5, early in that period.
But with midfielder Brian O'driscoll, a Cork minor this year, superb at midfield, and Kevin Davis a constant threat at centre- forward, both St Fachtna's stars finished with 0-5 apiece, while na Sceilge struggled for scores particularly in the second half.
But credit the Caherciveen school for battling back from falling 0-4 to 0-1 behind after 10 minutes – when a rout looked on the cards, to be honest – as John Shanahan's troops then stunned the Skibbereen by rattling off five without reply.
With Kieran O'driscoll seeing more of the ball in midfield, na Sceilge carried more threat and their best forward on the day Conor O'shea hit 0-3 in this spell, while Darren O'sullivan and Denis Daly weighed in with scores too as the Kerry side moved 0-6 to 0-4 ahead.
St Fachtnas brought it back to 0-6 to 0-5 by half-time but Darran O'sullivan (free) and Denis Daly pushed na Sceilge 0-8 to 0-5. Sadly for the south Kerry side, Skibbereen then took over, outscoring the Kerry school by 0-8 to 0-1 in the rest of the half.
With all the momentum, points from O'driscoll and three- in- a- row from the impressive Kevin Davis saw St Fachtnas move 0-10 to 0-8 clear with 10 minutes to go, before na Sceilge lifted the siege with a Denis Daly effort from distance.
But it was too little too late as the Cork side finished the stronger, and have now advanced to the quarterfinals at na Sceilge's expense.
COLÁISTE NA SCEILGE: Damien Murphy; Kevin Curran, Oran O'mahony, Ronan O'shea; Fionan Clifford, Darragh Scanlon, John Lynch; Kieran O'driscoll, Darren O'sullivan ( 0- 2f); Sean O'sullivan, Denis Daly (0-3, 0-2f), Conor O'leary; Conor O'shea (0-3, 02f), Michael Keating, Morgan O'donoghue (0-1) Subs: Sam O'dwyer for C O'leary (44); Cathal Brennan for J Lynch (47)
ST FACHTNAS: Skibbereen: Paddy Rossiter; Daniel Kingston, Bobby Nolan, Richie Fitzgerald; Brian Leonard, Patrick O'brien, Shane Horan; Brian O'driscoll (0-5, 0-1f), Paudie O'shea; Timmy Mccarthy, Kevin Davis (0-5), Rob Hayes (0-1); Brendan Hayes (0-1), Mark O'driscoll (0-1), Damien O'brien
Subs: Cillian Newman for P O'shea ( 22); Diarmuid O'callaghan for D Kingston (36); Michael Hurley for D O'brien (41); Paul Hickey for B Hayes ( 60)
REFEREE: Michael Meade (Limerick)
- Kieran Mccarthy at Rathbeg, Rathmore
