Crossmolina get straight down to business
Crossmolina’s Jordan Flynn looks to kick the ball over his Mayo teammate, Ballintubber's Diarmuid O'Connor, during the Mayo SFC Group 3 encounter at St Tiernan’s Park, Crossmolina, last Saturday evening. Picture: David Farrell Photography
Life without Kobe began as Crossmolina hope it will continue, as the Deel Rovers brushed aside the challenge of Ballintubber on Saturday evening.
Conor Loftus was the only one of their All-Ireland trio to start this championship opener, although Jordan Flynn arrived off the bench to drill home the game’s only goal, adding to the four points Loftus struck in the second-half.
On the other side, Diarmuid O’Connor featured at centre-back for a Ballintubber side who introduced Diarmuid’s brother Cillian towards the end of the third quarter. The latter’s frees helped to close an eleven points gap to five with five minutes left to play, but Crossmolina had plenty in the tank to see this game through.
This was a free-flowing contest from the get-go, and with six different scorers on the mark by the 13th minute – Josh Mahon (two points), Ciaran Gavin (two point free), Noel Geraghty, Keelan McDonnell, Michael Plunkett and Stephen O’Malley – it was Ballintubber who led 0-8 to 0-6.
Dylan Flynn and Cillian Fergus had scored from outside the arc at the other end, and there were points by Diarmuid Coggins and James Maheady, two, by the time Oisin Deane’s first of five points levelled the game on the quarter hour. A point by Niall Coggins a minute later, which was a goal chance drilled over, handed Crossmolina a lead they were never to relinquish, with Maheady and Deane adding to their tallies to leave the scoreboard reading 0-11 to 0-8.
Josh Mahon’s third point offered only brief respite for Ballintubber as they conceded four of the last five scores of the half, with Maheady, two, Deane and Diarmuid Walsh on the mark with points for the hosts and Stephen O’Malley curling over a two point free for the West Mayo visitors.
It could easily have been worse for Ballintubber as during that final ten minutes of the first-half, their goalkeeper Brendan Walsh had been forced into a save from James Maheady’s palmed effort, wing-back Bryan Walsh got back to stop a Niall Coggins shot on the goal line and Conor Loftus had a two point shot waved wide which the Crossmolina centre-back insisted had sailed between the Ballintubber uprights.
It was a sign of things to come however, as the bombardment continued after the half-time interval, with Crossmolina moving from 0-15 to 0-11 to 1-19 to 0-11 ahead inside ten minutes.
Firstly, a wonderful long ball by Jordan Flynn into the lap of the excellent Niall Coggins resulted in a 32nd minute goal chance that James Maheady blasted over, while Conor Loftus followed with a point soon after.
Josh Mahon had no luck when the Ballintubber attacker was denied a goal by a last ditch block from Matthew Gordetskyy after which Mahon lashed the rebound against the post and to rub salt into the wound, Jordan Flynn sliced through the Ballintubber defence in practically the next play before firing the ball low past Walsh.
Impressively, five of the game’s next seven scores were all two pointers. The singles were kicked for Ballintubber by Cillian O’Connor, a free, and Michael Plunkett, while those from outside the arc were booted over by Conor Loftus and Dylan Flynn, from a free, for Deel Rovers and by Ciaran Gavin and Cillian O’Connor, two frees, for the chasers.
That all left the scoreboard reading 1-21 to 0-19 after 54 minutes and the potential of a Ballintubber comeback could not be ruled out, but it was all Damien Coleman’s side could do to negate singles by James Maheady (his seventh point), Conor Loftus and Josh Moyles (Crossmolina’s tenth scorer) with three of their own by Stephen O’Malley, Ciaran Gavin and substitute Oran Murphy, leaving five points as still the margin entering four minutes of stoppage time.
It was no surprise that with the away side chasing hard, Crossmolina punished them on the counterattack and a final pair of points by Oisin Deane signed off on the victory for Brian Benson’s team who in open play had outscored their opponents 1-24 to 0-13.
Scorers – Crossmolina: James Maheady 0-0-7, Oisin Deane 0-0-5, Dylan Flynn 0-2-0 (1tpf), Conor Loftus 0-1-2, Jordan Flynn 1-0-0, Cillian Fergus 0-1-0, Diarmuid Coggins, Niall Coggins, Diarmuid Walsh and Josh Moyles 0-0-1 each.
Ballintubber: Cillian O’Connor (2tpf, 1f) and Ciaran Gavin (1tpf) 0-2-1 each, Stephen O’Malley 0-1-2 (1tpf), Josh Mahon 0-0-3, Michael Plunkett 0-0-2, Noel Geraghty, Keelan McDonnell and Oran Murphy 0-0-1 each.
Crossmolina: Patrick Loftus; Sean Óg McGuinness, Kevin Mulhern, Matthew Gordetskyy; Mikie Loftus, Conor Loftus, Aaron Coggins; Josh Moyles, Cillian Fergus; Dylan Flynn, Niall Coggins, Diarmuid Coggins; Diarmuid Walsh, James Maheady, Oisin Deane. Subs: Jordan Flynn (for McGuinness 27, blood), McGuinness (for M Loftus 51), Cathal Carolan (for D Coggins 54), Darragh Syron (for Walsh 59).
Ballintubber: Brendan Walsh; Jack Walsh, Brian Murphy, Ethan Lyons; Michael Plunkett, Diarmuid O’Connor, Bryan Walsh; Jason Gibbons, Jack Prendergast; Keelan McDonnell, Noel Geraghty, Tiernan Brady; Ciaran Gavin, Stephen O’Malley, Josh Mahon. Subs: Stephen Burke (for Geraghty 26), Cillian O’Connor (for Brady 40), Jack Diffley (for Prendergast 43), Oran Murphy (for McDonnell 51).
REF: Jon Glavey (Aghamore)
