Strong second half performance earns Gers u15 win against Joe’s

On a balmy Wednesday evening the Gers u15 recorded and impressive 4-12 to 2-8 win over local rivals St Josephs’s in McGeough Park.

The first half of this division 1 league game was a very tight affair with the teams matching each other point for point with early points from Jamie Soraghan and Oliver Begley quickly cancelled out at the other end by the Dromiskin lads. Good work from Oliver Begley set up a well taken Cian Spaight point after 15 minutes but the Joes responded with 3 points to lead by 2 before a Jamie Soraghan free brought the Gers to within a point at the break. On the balance of play the Joe’s should have been further ahead on the scoreboard at half time as the Gers got away with some sloppy play and weren’t really combining as a team and too many players taking the wrong options.

The Gers boys emerged for the second half totally transformed in their attitude, team play and work rate as they took the game to the opposition and fought for every ball. Cian Spaight and David Clune took a stranglehold in the middle of the field and were rewarded for direct ball in when Oliver Begley broke the ball down for Jamie Soraghan to score a point. Ryan McCutcheon made a decisive contribution to power home a great goal which was followed up by two super points from Alex O’Kane from distance and David Clune, both set up by the industrious Padraig Corcoran who was now dominating his sector of the field. A rocket of a shot from Jamie Soraghan saw another green flag raised before Cian Spaight tacked on a point from distance. The free running Alex O’Kane was causing all sorts of problems for the opposition winning ball and running at speed at the defence and using the ball intelligently.

Padraig Corcoran topped of an outstanding 2nd half with a super point from 40 yards out in the left. The Joes fought back but found Shea Neary in imperious form at full back and Cormac Broe’s intelligent positional play, interceptions and covering at number 6 kept the opposition at bay. Cillian Lynch picked up some great possession in half forward in the 2nd period and moved the ball on and was instrumental in several scores and David Clune played a similar role around the middle. Eoin Rodgers and Evan Hoey Rogers worked hard throughout and were out in front to win vital balls in defence to keep the Joes reply down to two solitary points before Oliver Begley delivered a salvo of 1-1 in a few minutes to put the result beyond doubt.

The Geraldines relaxed a bit and the Joes fought back with two quick goals before Sean McKenna scored a point. Sean created a few scores for his team mates with quick and clever passing before scoring a stunning goal to the top corner himself.

Cian Spaight finished off a dynamic performance with the final point. Evan Callaghan was steady throughout in goals and Ashwant Santosh, Jack Greene, Aodhan Gibbons all put in good solid performances also and Darragh Kenny worked hard in corner forward. Maciek Dibros also came on late in the game to make his division 1 debut.

Thank you to the u14 squad who all stayed after their hard fought draw against the Gaels to support the u15 boys who themselves had come up early to cheer on their younger clubmates.

Well done to the boys on a great 2nd half performance from the boys to make it three wins out of five in division one. Next up is the Newtown Blues at home next Wednesday.