Kilkee win West Clare derby

Kilkee Community College 3-9   Kilrush Community School 2-8

The ladies football Clare senior C schools finals took place last Thursday in Cooraclare with Kilkee Community College beating Kilrush Community School in an exciting final.
A strong wind dictated the flow of the game and Kilkee capitalised on this to the full in the first half. An exceptional performance in attack by Shauna Harvey saw her rack up 2-5 (0-2f) before the break, while Olive King contributed three points.
Amy Keane took a great goal to boot. Kilrush goalie Hazel Baumann was very good and put in several blocks to deny a very goal hungry attack. In fairness to the Shamrocks, they worked very hard to bring the game up field and some good performances through the middle via Sinead Burke, Roisin O’Looney, Aine O’Looney and Aoife O’Gorman saw a hard fought 2-2 being accumulated to keep the Kilrush girls in contention.
Aoife Carraig pointed first for Kilrush, a solid Aine Browne took 1-1 and Aine O’Looney’s rocket was palmed over by Rianna Lillis for a point to give a nine point gap when Barry Kelly called for the break. 2-2 to 3-8 in favour of the Kilkee.
After the break Kilkee went into defensive mode and Shauna Harvey dropped back to play as an extra defender and played equally well in this role. Kilkee were to score only a solitary point by King again after 25 minutes with this strategy and decided to weather the Kilrush onslaught, which did come.
Kilrush lived in the Kilkee side for the most of the second half but didn’t convert the effort into scores. Kilrush’s Aoife O’Gorman was outstanding as she launched several attacks at speed and Sinead Burke, Roisin O’Looney, Ronya Baumann, Lisa O’Dea, Aoife Carraig also kept the pressure up but Shauna and sister Grainne Harvey, Collette Keniry and Ailish Brew soaked up a lot of the pressure for the Blues.
After 20 minutes of the second half Kilrush had narrowed the gap to six points though Lisa O’Dea and Aoife Carraig, who also converted a free. King was back to push the gap out to seven points for Kilkee Community College but Kilrush responded with three points courtesy of Aoife Carraig and Jenny Ryan.
Emma McMahon and Collette Keniry worked hard in the Kilkee full-back line and Mary Beth Downes with Ailish Brew foiled the last desperate attempts by Kilrush to breach the Kilkee defences. When referee Barry Kelly blew it up the score was 2-8 to 3-9 and Kilkee Community College were the Clare Schools senior C champions.

Kilkee: Rianna Lillis, Ciara McQuaid, Grainne Harvey, Martha Hanrahan, Emma McMahon, Collette Keniry, Mary Beth Downes, Ailish Brew, Shauna Harvey, Rachel Clancy, Olive King, Rose Marrinan, Becky Madigan, Lauren Keane, Amy Keane.

Kilrush: Hazel Baumann, Sarah Quinlivan, Anna Hayes, Eva Hayes, Sinead Burke, Roisin O’ Looney, Aine O’ Looney, Aoife O’ Gorman, Aoife Conway, Jenny Ryan, Aine Browne, Ronya Baumann, Lisa O’ Dea, Aoife Carrig, Grainne Howard
Subs: Shauna O Brien (for Grainne Howard), Carla Behan, Kayla Crowley, Stephanie O’Donoghue, Louise Hall, Louise O’ Gorman, Sarah Thornton, Caitriona Crowe, Nicole Burke, Emma McInerney, Shannon Carroll, Cliona Bond