Brilliant Balla advance to All-Ireland final
Balla’s Oran Murphy in action against Carrigaline’s Calum Gregson during the All-Ireland PPS Senior C football semi-final at Clarecastle this afternoon. Picture: David Farrell Photography
The attacking power of Balla Secondary School proved top much for Carrigaline Community School to handle as the boys in blue defeated their Cork opponents 3-17 to 1-9 to reach the All-Ireland PPS Senior 'C' Football final.
Carrigaline took the lead early on, 0-2 to 0-1, but Balla would hit 1-4 without reply, the goal coming from a Liam Glynn penalty, to lead by six at the end of the first quarter.
A two-pointer from Cian Lynch would be Carrigaline's only other score in the first half as further scores from Glynn, Patrick McHale, Oran Murphy and man of the match Charlie Fallon put them 1-9 to 0-4 in front.
Fallon's scored Balla's second goal three minutes into the second half and additional points from McHale, Fallon and a pair of two-pointers from Ethan Duffy stretched Balla's lead to 16 points with 13 minutes of play remaining.
To Carrigaline's credit, they continued to battle and scored 1-4 in the final 13 minutes of the game. Balla had taken their foot off the accelerator at that stage but they would score a third goal late on through Patrick McHale to set up a final with St Ciaran's College, Ballygawley (Tyrone) in the All-Ireland final in two weeks time.
