Boston GAA: Kills, St. Pat’s deadlock in Mawn Cup

By Connie Kelly

St. Columbkilles did not live up to last week’s form when they took on St. Pat’s, settling for a 6-6 draw Sunday in Round 2 of the Mawn Cup at Dilboy Field in Somerville.

The Kills did get on the board first from the boot of Mick Kearns and Conor McKeever added a lovely point from 40 yards out. Scores from play were hard to come by for St Pats. Mickey Joe Hines had two points from frees and Donal Hallissey had another point for the Kills to make it 3-all at half time.

The second half was a repeat of the first, a lot of wides on both sides. Kills could only come up with three points from Paul Dillon, Donal Keane and Gerry Walls, while Pat’s had to rely on Mickey Joe Hines to send over two points from frees. Ronan Guilding made it 6-all and that is the way the game ended.

Meanwhile, Donegal were convincing winners, 4-5 to 1-3, over Cork. Sean Boyce opened the scoring for Donegal with a point followed by another point from Liam O’Neill. Cork were finding it hard to get going, with Liam O’Neill on attack again for Donegal. He found McGinty, who made no mistake in finding the net for the first goal of the game. Frank Delaney tried to get Cork going and sent Bernard Alcock through for Cork’s first point after 15 minutes. Back again came Donegal and Sean Boyce had another point. Kieran Connolly closed out the scoring for Cork with a point before halftime, making it 1-4 to 0-2 in Donegal’s favor.

The first kick of the second half saw Richie Fleming score a goal for Cork, followed by a quick point. At this early stage it looked like a comeback for Cork. But it was not to be. Donegal just took this game over and it was ended as a contest.

In the third game, Mayo take it to last year’s champions, Connemara Gaels, winning 1-12 to 0-7. While the first half was fairly close, the Gaels got off to an early 3-point lead (two by Pat Molloy and one by Stevie Sheehy), but Mayo with a win last week which already helped them, came right back with points from Kevin Walsh, Declan O’Malley, Brian McStay and three points from Jarvis made it 6-4 at halftime in favor of Mayo.

Rain ruined the fourth game, in which Notre Dame toppled Wolfe Tone’s, 1-8 to 1-1. These two teams met in the championship final last year with the Wolfe Tones coming out on top. Sean Casey for Notre Dame struck early with two points. The Tones answered with a quick goal and a point. The game went right to halftime without another score from either team, leaving it Tone’s 1-1, Notre Dame 0-2.

The second half saw more action off the ball. Two minutes into the half saw Brian Fitzsimmons and the Tones goalie sent to the line and minutes later, No. 4, Pat Byrnes was sent to the line from Notre Dame. The players seemed to settle down after that and returned to the task at hand. While the Tones could not register another score in the game, Notre Dame rang up 1-6. Sean Casey was on target with two points also Mick Gribbon and Declan Austin was in the right place when he caught the tail end of a 50 and sent it to the net for a goal.

In the Fox Cup hurling, Tipperary beat Galway, 2-8 to 0-9, in a physical game.

The first game of the day in Ladies football Shamrocks took on Tir na nOg. The Shamrocks are a hard team to beat and with Paula O’Callaghan in shooting form scoring 1-3, it made things hard on Tir na nOg all afternoon. Adding to that tally was Lisa Morrissey 0-1, Charlotte Curran 0-1 and Joan Reen two points for a total of 1-7.

Scorers for Tir na nOg were Caroline Newton 0-2, Ann O’Dea 0-1, Ann Maria Cahill 0-1. Now the Shamrocks take on Roscommon in the final. In the hurling final, Fr. Toms take on Tipperary on May 3 at Dilboy.