By Connie Kelly
Heat was a big factor in Boston on Sunday when three senior games were decided. With temperatures in the 90s, fitness and youth stood out.
Mayo went into their game against Donegal with high expectations and at the end of the half were level 1-4 to 0-7.
Brian McStay got Mayo off to a dream start with a goal right from the start. McStay added three more points, and with two frees in only 12 minutes gone, Mayo were flying.
However, Donegal settled and chipped away at the lead.
Colm Campbell put one over for Donegal and for the next 15 minutes Donegal picked up the pace of this game with some excellent scores by John Doherty and Michael Ward. Christy Roche and John Donnellan tried hard for Mayo.
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Donegal kept pressing and were unlucky not to have a goal for their efforts with goalie Martin Farrell beaten, the ball hit the upright and went wide.
Gary Woods of Mayo had a shot on goal saved by David Greene just before the half.
In the second half, Donegal took over where they left off with Michael Ward having the ball in the Mayo net inside two minutes of play.
McStay, Toner and Woods had points for Mayo, but Ward’s second goal after 15 minutes broke Mayo’s heart.
Doherty and Brian Arrigan added to Donegal’s lead. Even a late goal by Mayo was not be enough.
Donegal deserved this game, the final score of which was 2-10 to 2-7.
A Kerry win
In the last game of the afternoon, Kerry beat the Wolfe Tones by a score of 0-15 to 0-7, thanks to Darren Lee at centerfield, who caught everything that came his way. But Kerry had very little to show for it at the half leading by just two points 0-6 to 0-4.
Mark O’Brien was unusually slow to settle with just two points in the half. Brother Mick O’Brien added one before Mick Salmon of the Tones got his team on the board.
Pat Fenton of Kerry added two more, one from a free.
Salmon sent over two from frees and set Noel McPhillips for a lovely point.
Denis Sayers of Kerry closed out the half with a point from Darren Lee.
Kerry switched Pat Buttimer with Mike O’Brien to start the second half and Buttimer had a much better game in the backs.
Once again, the pairing of Lee and Behan at center for Kerry proved too much for Brendan Murray and Don Johnson, add to that Pat Fenton, who had a stormer for Kerry with with three second-half points and set up Mark O’Brien for two more.
Neil Sheehy and Paul Clifford closed down the Tones’ half forwards, while Brian Farrell and Brian Geraghty took care of Ken Daly and Martin McNally of the Tones.
Kerry now leads the pack with five points from three games.
No blues for Shannon Blues
Shannon Blues beat St. Collumbkilles in the third senior game by a score of 2-11 to 0-9.
The Blues, led by Kieran Maher, never gave the Killes a chance in the first half, leading by 1-8 to 0-1.
Fergal Harney pulled off some great saves for the Killes and Timmy Lenihan was rock solid, as were Gerry McMahon and Dara Keane.
For the Blues, Cathal Golden, Dave Burke and Pat Driscoll were on target time and again.
The Killes made a better showing in the second half with eight points, but another Blues goal by golden proved too much for the Killes.
This was to be a repeat of their junior game, where they lost to McAnespies by a score of 2-13 to 3-7.
Once again they went in at the half down, 1-8 to 0-2, but came storming back in the second half with 3-5 to 1-4.
Wolfe Tones beat Connemara
The second junior game was won by the Wolfe Tones defeating the Connemara Gaels with a score of 1-9 to 0-5.