February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Jack Flynn
Waterford 1-15, Westmeath 1-13
It isn’t often that a Senior Hurling match is the last sports item on the agenda on a Sunday in Gaelic Park. But Waterford’s entertaining 1-15 to 1-13 triumph over Westmeath provided a rousing finale to a long day of action nonetheless.
“It was a tough one,” said Waterford’s Keith Hennessey, who had a terrific game overall and scored two important late points. “It was probably the toughest match we’ve had this season.”
It was a tough match for both sides. The lead seesawed throughout the hour until Waterford used a late second-half run to finally earn the win.
Westmeath scored the first four points of the match, as scoring stars Brian Daly and Shane Dalton each scored two points. The full forwards were deadly for the entire match, combining for a goal and 11 points between them.
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Waterford answered quickly, however, and turned the 4-point disadvantage into a 1-6 to 0-4 lead. An Ollie O’Neill point was followed by a goal from Jason Lawlor, the hero of Stamford’s win over Leitrim earlier in the day.
Pauric Lawlor and Richie Purcell also scored during the Waterford run, as Westmeath completely broke down and were unable to do anything right. Down five points after being ahead just minutes before, Dalton scored to stop the bleeding for Westmeath.
The halftime score was 1-8 to 0-6 in favor of Waterford, who were threatening to run away and hide with the match. Things didn’t look any better as Jason Lawlor scored to start off the second 30 minutes and give his side a 6-point lead.
Finally, Westmeath began to show some signs of life. A 3-point run that included scores from Dalton, Brian McCabe and Jimmy Hughes cut the Waterford lead to three points, 1-9 to 0-9.
Waterford used two scores from Barry Walsh (who was quite the fan favorite) to offset the damage of three points from Daly and one from Dalton. Still, the score was now 1-11 to 0-13 for Waterford and Westmeath found themselves just one point away from drawing level.
They never got any closer, however. A 4-point Waterford run used two scores from Hennessey and one each from Walsh and John Whelan to take a 5-point lead, 1-15 to 0-13. A late goal from Daly gave the Westmeath faithful one last thrill, but the goal turned out to be the final score of the day.
Afterward, Hennessey was ready to begin looking ahead to the playoffs, which Waterford will be looking to make some noise in, should they gain an invite to the dance.
“We knew what we had to do. We had to come out and beat Westmeath today,” Hennessey said. “Hopefully, now we can go out and win a Senior championship.”
In an earlier match at Gaelic Park on Sunday, Westput used three goals from Phil Connolly to power their way to a 4-11 to 0-15 win over Donegal in Junior A football.
Waterford scorers: J. Lawlor 1-3; O’ Neill and Walsh 0-3; P. Lawlor and Hennessey 0-2; Purcell and Whelan 0-1.
Westmeath: Daly 1-5; Dalton 0-6; McCabe and Hughes 0-1.