Delight for Davitts as O’Dea goals prove crucial
The players and management of Davitts following their victory over Knockmore in the U17 Grading Final played in Ballindine.
Davitts and Knockmore met in the U-17 C Grading League final in Ballindine where two opportunistic goals, one in each half, by Aaron O’Dea, proved to be the difference between two well matched teams.
Knockmore shot three points in the first ten minutes of the game before Davitts midfielder Dylan Burke settled his side’s nerves with a classy point in the eleventh minute. Ronan Kelly pointed for Davitts two minutes later but Knockmore scored again to go two ahead at the start of the second quarter.
In the 18th minute, Davitts’ excellent goalkeeper Dylan O’Brien pointed a ’45 and then pulled off a top class save less than a minute later. A Knockmore point in the 22nd minute restored their two point advantage but Davitts finished the half strongly. Two Ronan Kelly points in the 24th and 26th minutes levelled the match for the first time since throw-in and in the 28th minute Aaron O’Dea netted his first goal, first timing to the net after Dylan Burke had blocked down an attempted clearance. This left the home side ahead by 1-5 to 0-5 at half-time.
Two brilliant points from Tadhg Feerick and Aaron Conneely Basham in the first three minutes of the second-half extended Davitts’ lead to five and while Knockmore struck a point in the 36th minute, they were left reeling when Aaron O’Dea flicked a long range Ronan Kelly free to the net.
Knockmore, as always, were not going to go down without a fight, and they shot four unanswered points between the 40th and 48th minutes to reduce the deficit to three points. Davitts defended very well though and kept the visitors scoreless after that while adding two more points to their tally, scored by Aaron O’Dea and team captain Ciaran Treacy.
Dylan O’Brien was extremely confident in goals. Wing-back Tadhg Feerick gave a man of the match performance with Conor McDermott controlling the game from centre half-back. Ben Corless had a super match in the corner while Sean Clarke, Noah O’Brien and Brian Hett also defended very well. At midfield, Burke Briere and Dylan Burke both worked tirelessly from start to finish. Two goal hero Aaron O’Dea, Ronan Kelly and Aaron Conneely Basham formed an effective half forward-line. Full-forward Ciaran Treacy put in a hardworking shift and got good support from Fionn McTigue and Dylan Gormley. Subs Cillian Kearns and Odhran Ó Connaire played their parts when introduced in the second-half.
Well done to the management team of Lawrence Daly, Frank Kelly, Padraig Moran and Liam Nyland.
Davitts: Dylan O’Brien (0-1); Ben Corless, Sean Clarke, Brian Hett; Noah O’Brien, Conor McDermott, Tadhg Feerick (0-1); Burke Briere, Dylan Burke (0-1);Aaron O Dea (2-1), Ronan Kelly (0-3), Aaron Conneely Basham (0-1); Fionn McTigue, Ciaran Treacy (0-1), Dylan Gormley. Subs used: Cillian Kearns, Odhran Ó Connaire.
