Meath U20 Football Championship Group B
St Colmcilles 0.12
Summerhill 0.12
The two unbeaten teams in Group B of the U20 Championship faced off in Piltown in a much anticipated game on Friday night. Summerhill opened the scoring after 3 mins with a point from Adam McDonnell, the first of three excellent first half long distance scores from the midfielder. David Bell converted a free for the Seasiders on 6 mins before Endy Ehichoya turned over the ball on his own 21 yard line and initiated a quick movement upfield resulting in his brother Danny slotting a well worked point. A long kickout over midfield on 14 mins caught the Summerhill rearguard by surprise and Luke Conlon took advantage to score. At this stage, both defences were well on top with both sides funnelling players back to defence when they didn’t have the ball. The exchanges were physical at times with a yellow card being shown to a Summerhill defender midway through the half. Corner forward Daragh McVann levelled the game on 26 mins before dangerman Eoghan Frayne opened his account on 30 mins to see Summerhill ahead by the minimum at the break on a scoreline of 0.5 to 0.4.
The game was finely poised and the second half certainly didn’t disappoint in terms of excitement. On resumption, David Bell moved to full forward in a swap with Danny Ehichoya and his role as a target man on the inside line caused a lot of problems for the Summerhill defence for the remainder of the game. Godfrey Ehichoya levelled the game after 2 mins but a Jamie O’Shea free shortly afterwards pushed Summerhill back in front. Two points from play and a free from David Bell followed by a Luke Hanan point pushed the Seasiders three in front. Summerhill looked in trouble now and their situation was compounded further by a black card shown to Adam McDonnell on 15 mins. However, they rallied strongly and had their best spell of the game with two frees from full forward Frayne before Danny Ehichoya had a goal chance for Cilles on 20 mins but blasted just wide. An excellent through ball from Sean O’Donoghue saw David Bell score from play on 22 mins and he followed up shortly afterwards with a free to leave the score at 0.11 to 0.8 in favour of the East Meath side. Jamie O’Shea got his second score of the game and Eoghan Frayne converted a free before the Summerhill side won a sideline on the left hand side between the 14 and 21 yard lines. Frayne stepped up to send a stunning score sailing over the crossbar and the contest was tied on 0.11 points each. The game was in injury time now and Oisin O’Mhurchu seemed to have won the game for the home side with an excellently taken free from the left hand side. However, there was time for even more drama as Eoghan Freyne converted a late free with the last kick of an entertaining game to leave the sides tied at the finish.
St Colmcilles: Oisin Brennan, Godfrey Ehichoya (0.1), Liam Stafford, Matthew Weir, Luke Conlon (0.01), Sean O’Donoghue, Adrian Kavanagh, Evan Breen, Endy Ehichoya, Conor Clifford, David Bell (0.07, 4F), Eoghan McCloughan, Luke Hanan (0.1), Danny Ehichoya (0.1) , Shaun Leonard
Subs used: Charlie Bacon, Oisin O’Mhurchu (0.01)
Summerhill: Sean Hughes, Darragh Loughrey, Eoghan Grehan, Darren Chapman, Kevin Mulligan, Ben Moran, Gavin McVann, Adam McDonnell (0.3), Donal Matthews, James Gray, Jamie O’Shea (0.2 1F), Luke Byrne, Daragh McVann (0.01), Eoghan Frayne (0.06 5F), Luke Moran
