Ballina feel the force of the Westport blue wave
Westport's U16 'A' champions after their win over Ballina Stephenites. Picture: Conor McKeown
A late flurry of goals capped off a memorable evening for Westport as they claimed the Mayo U16 ‘A’ county title last Friday evening.
Once Fiachra Ó Cinsealla and Oisin Barrett opened the scoring, the Coveys went into a lead they would never surrender.
Dara Dawson extended Westport’s lead with two frees as Ballina struggled to break through a water-tight Blues backline.
A Michael Carolan free got Ballina Stephenites up and running but the Westport train showed no signs of derailment as Conan Reilly restored their four-point lead with a lovely score.
Conor Mayock got Ballina’s first from play before Westport extended their advantages from placed balls through goalkeeper Thomas Williams (45’) and another Dawson free to make it 0-7 to 0-2.
The game was beginning to get away from Ballina and after a miss by Mayock, Westport broke with their trademark pace before Ross O’Connor netted Westport’s first goal, with Reilly and Dawson prominent in the move.
Ballina almost has the perfect response through Oisin McCann but Mattie McLoughlin made the save to stop it from crossing the line. Reilly and Dawson furthered the Westport lead but Ballina made no mistake second time around with the goal at their mercy, with substitute turning Craig Ferguson turning in the rebound after McCann hit the woodwork before Carolan nailed another free to leave Ballina trailing by six at the break, 1-9 to 1-3.
A rejuvenated Stephenites halved the deficit through McCann (two) and Carolan, and Andrew Barrett would then trade scores with Westport’s Reilly to leave it 1-10 to 1-7.
Westport were under the cosh but a moment of magic reignited their hopes when Fiachra Ó Cinsealla ran an incredible 50 yards with the ball, leaving multiple Ballina defenders in his wake. He had the option of offloading it to a teammate but he backed himself and launched a piledriver into the top corner.
The West Mayo young guns had their tails up and Thomas Williams followed up his 45’ in the first half with a monster free from 40 metres out.
Carolan’s third free kept Ballina in it but Westport’s next goal effectively killed off hopes for the Stephenites. Gathering the ball on the 45-metre line, full-forward Fionn Ó Cinsealla replicated Fiachra earlier green flag to ghost past several defenders before placing his shot into the bottom right corner.
Ballina had to go for broke but left themselves open at the back. Westport did not need a second invitation as Reilly and Ben Holmes both found the net in the closing stages to cap off a wonderful display by Westport.
