Strength and balance win the day for Ballyea

Ballyea 2-19  Tubber 1-10

Ballyea proved better balanced and too strong for Tubber in this U-21B championship quarter-final tie played in ideal conditions at Ruan on Saturday.
The early exchanges were even with free-takers Tony Kelly (Ballyea) and Patrick O’Connor exchanging points before the winners, helped by three fine strikes from Niall Deasy, edged a few points clear.
Shortly before the break, Tony, which helped them to a six-point advantage at half-time when the score was 1-9 to 0-6.
Five of Tubber’s first-half points came from frees by Patrick O’Connor who also missed a couple of opportunities while Conor Clancy had their only score from play in this half.
In the second half, Ballyea continued to hold the upperhand, helped by midfield dominance through Tony Kelly and Paul Flanagan and they extended their lead on the way to a merited win, which has earned them a place in the semi-final against St Joseph’s. Clare U-21 football captain Paudge McMahon, scored the side’s secondhalf goal.
Shortly before the end, Tubber were reduced to 14 men when full-back Paul Fogarty was sent off by referee Rory Hickey.
Ballyea: Shane Harkin, Eanna McInerney, Jack Browne, Cormac Ryan; David Sheehan, Gearóid O’Connell, James Murphy; Paul Flanagan, Tony Kelly; Niall Deasy, Brian Murphy, Cathal Doohan; Declan Keane, Paudge McMahon, Niall Griffin.
Tubber: Ronan Taaffe; Paddy O’Connor, Paul Fogarty, Philip O’Connor; Sean Brosnan, Fergal O’Grady, Sean Naughton; Nigel O’Donoghue, Cathal Murray; Patrick O’Connor, Conor Clancy, Evan O’Donoghue; Kevin Fawl, Darragh O’Connor, Neil O’Loughlin.

St Joseph’s 3-11  Smith O’Brien’s 2-12

St Joseph’s laid the foundations for this deserved win over Smith O’Brien’s in the first half when they built up a two-goal lead.
Goals from Ian Lyons and Niall Collins helped the Doora-Barefield outfit to lead 2-6 to 0-6 at the halfway point. Early in the second half, Barry Millane struck for their third goal but from here on they were under pressure from the Killaloe side that fought backstrongly.
Smith O’Brien’s tried for goals from three 20m frees but their efforts were saved on each occasion. Their second goal came in the closing minutes and cut the margin to two points but the Doora-Barefield men, helped by some fine points from Niall De Loughrey, held on for a merited win and a semi-final date with Ballyea.
Kevin McEvoy was outstanding for the losers while Noel Howard, Mark Stritch, Micheal Ryan and Kevin Walsh also did well on a day when Luke Hession and Christopher Monaghan were the goalscorers.
St Joseph’s: Mikey Roseingrave; Niall Hassett, Shane Collins, Darragh Murphy; Liam Clohessy, Alan O’Neill, Eamonn Clohessy; Leo Duggan, Jarlath Colleran; Niall De Loughrey, Donal Fanning, Niall Collins; Barry Millane, Shane O’Connor, Ian Lyons.
Subs: Declan Meehan for L Clohessy; Aaron Landy for Meehan; Eoin Hennessy for N Collins.
Smith O’Brien’s: Jason Monaghan; Cian Nolan, Mark McInerney, Alan Lyons; Noel Howard, Mark Stritch, Kevin McEvoy; David Gough, Micheal Ryan; Ben Hynes, Dean Simmott, Kevin Walsh; Cian Moloney, Barry Power, Mark O’Halloran.
Subs: Luke Hession, Christopher Monaghan, Noel McInerney.

O’Callaghan’s Mills 1-16  Whitegate 3-9

O’Callaghan’s Mills had to pull out all the stops to record a one-point win over Whitegate in this tie played at Tulla.
Indeed, some will argue that a draw would have been the fair result on the day and it almost worked out that way. In the final minute Whitegate were awarded a long-range free but goalkeeper Andrew Fahy’s effort was waved wide.
The sides were evenly matched throughout and they went to the break on level terms. Jamie Lynch was the goalscorer for the winners while Whitegate’s goals came from Ian Fahy and the Bleach brothers, Gareth and Colin.
Henry Skehan, Sean and Aidan O’Gorman, Kevin O’Callaghan, James McMahon and Jamie Lynch impressed for the winners.
O’Callaghan’s Mills: Henry Skehan; Sean O’Gorman, Gerry Cooney, Michael McGrath; Aidan Fawl, Adrian Donovan, Darren Cooney; Kevin O’Callaghan, Eoin McInerney; Colm McHugh, James McMahon, Eoin McGrath; Jamie Lynch, Ian Donnellan, Aidan O’Gorman.
Whitegate: Andrew Fahy; Christy McNamara, Tomás McNamara, David Durack; Tomás Hanley, Neil Broderick, Michael Minogue; Ian Fahy, Paul O’Rourke; Alan Mulvihill, Colin Bleach, Mark Treacy; Michael Dooley, Eoin Quirke, Paddy Burke.
Subs: Liam Sugrue for M Treacy; Gareth Bleach for Colin Bleach.

Clooney-Quin 3-7  Crusheen 0-12

A contribution of 3-5 from Peter Duggan helped Clooney-Quin to a four-point win over Crusheen in this first-round replay at Éire Óg on Saturday. As a result of this victory, they will play Corofin in the last of the quarter-finals this Saturday at Gurteen.
Crusheen played with the aid of the breeze in the first half and led at the break on a score of 0-9 to 1-3. Full-forward Conor O’Donnell accounted for six of those points on a day when his side missed the services of the injured Fergus Kennedy.
Clooney-Quin’s decision to switch Peter Duggan to full-forward in the second half proved decisive as he caused a lot of problems for the opposition and picked off some excellent scores.
Clooney–Quin: Keith Hogan; Brian McInerney, Brian Clune, Ronan McMahon; Niall McMahon, Ruairi McNamara, David Kennedy; Daire Hannon, David Barry; Ryan O’Neill, Joseph Clune, Jason Ryan, Gary Hogan, Conor Cunningham, Peter Duggan.
Subs: John Reynolds for J Clune; Shane Smyth for Barry (inj).
Crusheen: Brian Dillon; Ruairi Halpin, Conor Hayes, Jason Daffy, Jason Greene, Conor O’Loughlin, Darragh O’Doherty; Youen Horner, Padraic O’Malley; Ethan O’Donnell, Jamie Fitzgibbon, Edmond Fogarty; Sean Weir, Conor O’Donnell, Anthony Rodgers.