Three teams take another step on road to junior glory
Eastern Gaels’ David Smith lands a point watched by Ballycroy’s Kevin Ginty during the Mayo GAA Treanlaur Catering County JFC quarter final at Brickens this evening. Picture: David Farrell Photography
Three of the four semi-finalists in this year’s Treanlaur Catering Mayo Junior Football Championship were confirmed on Saturday evening, with the fourth to be decided on Sunday.
Eastern Gaels and Ardagh made the most of home advantage, however, Kiltimagh claimed the narrowest of wins on the road against Shrule-Glencorrib.
It might have taken Stephen Grealis only 25 seconds to open the scoring at the Riverside Grounds, one of three first-half points by the centre-forward, but that was the only time Ballycroy led Eastern Gaels in a tough, physical encounter at Brickens.
Gaels led 0-9 to 0-4 at half-time and could have been further in front but for full-forward David Smith cracking a goal effort off the butt of the right upright.
The hosts eventually found the net in the 48th minute when Jack Madden fired an advanced mark past goalkeeper Jack Deane.
Ballycroy were largely reliant on the placed ball kicking of Michael Conway and Rory Conway in the second-half but were already ten points behind by the time substitute Raymond Grealis received a straight red card. The Conways helped reduce the gap to seven points by full-time, 1-15 to 0-11.
Elsewhere, Ardagh were pushed to their absolute limit by local rivals Northern Gaels before squeezing through to the last four on a 3-12 to 1-16 scoreline. The hosts had led 1-5 to 0-8 at half-time and within four minutes of the restart had actually eased into a six points advantage. That remained the difference until early in the final quarter when Northern Gaels began to reel in their opponents, but time ran out on the Kilfian-Lacken amalgamation.
One point is all that separated the teams in the day’s other quarter-final, with Kiltimagh victorious over home team Shrule-Glencorrib by 1-11 to 1-10.
Kiltimagh had led 0-6 to 0-5 at the interval and moved three points ahead early in the second-half but a 59th equalising goal by Evan Cawley set-up a grandstand finish, with Kiltimagh pinching a winning point in the third minute of stoppage time.
The remaining quarter-final berth is to be duked out between Tourmakeady and Bonniconlon at 2pm on Sunday.
