Senior 2 Camogie Championship semi-final Skerries Harps 0-15 Erins Isle 1-7 Skerries Senior 2 camogie team survived a tough test on Sunday morning last to reach the championship final. A very experienced and tough tackling Erins Isle team tested the mettle of the Skerries girls but they rose to the challenge and emerged victorious with a 5-point margin. Skerries, playing into the road goal, started well. A well worked move between Robyn Kehoe and Nicola Thorne was converted from an awkward angle by Thorne. Thorne and captain Aoife Halpin then converted frees and Kehoe added a great score from play from the right corner. Many of the Skerries attacks during the first half came from some excellent play from young wing-back Megan Carroll. Isles then started to play the opposite wing and brought veteran Gillian McLoskey into play. She landed two great scores from play and was fouled for a converted free. The visitors would have been right back in the game on the 20 th minute except for a superb diving save by Niamh Kirby in the Harps goal. The Harps reorganised and responded with a run of four points. Alix Buckley was winning good possession in the corner and landed a score on the run. Kathy Gilmore, now putting a tight rein on McLoskey, won a great ball and the Harps worked it smartly up field for Tara O’Flaherty to hit a great point from out on the left side-line. A final point of the half from the strong running Orlaith Durkan saw the Harps go in at the interval break holding a 0-9 to 0-4 lead The second half started with the Isles, aided by a strengthening breeze, pressurising the Harps defence. Stout work from full back Roisin Leneghan and the half back line of Carroll, Jean Murphy and Grace Leach forced the Isles forwards to shooting under pressure and they only added one point to their total in the first ten minutes of the half. Skerries added two points from Thorne and O’Flaherty to maintain a five point lead. The Isles pressure finally yielded a goal and the questions were now being asked of the home players. First half substitute Rachel O’Flaherty was winning good possession and minimising the impact of Isles star Louise O’Hara. Another Thorne free and excellent Tara O’Flaherty score from play settled the Harps players. There followed a bout of tough battles for the ball around the middle third with neither side gaining much fluency. The youth and speed of the Harps girls finally told in the last ten and points from Buckley and Tara O’Flaherty stretched the Harps lead back to five points. Working hard to the finish they held on to that lead. The Harps now look forward to a final against St. Oliver Plunketts/Eoghan Ruadh in Abbotstown next Sunday at 1pm, hoping to go one better than 2016 when they lost out by a score to St. Judes. Harps: Niamh
Kirby, Shona McMahon, Roisin Leneghan, Kathy Gilmore , Grace Leach, Jean
Murphy, Megan Carroll, Ciara Copeland, Aoife Halpin (0-2f), Nicola Thorne(0-5,
3f), Orlaith Durkan(0-1) Tara O’Flaherty (0-4), Alix Buckley (0-2)Niamh Murphy,
Robyn Kehoe (0-1) . Subs: Rachel O’Flaherty for McMahon, Leona Harford for
Thorne. Ashling Spillane, Ona Keegan, Emma Parker, Chloe McNicholas,
Roisin O’Connor Flanagan. Hannah Coleman. |
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