Gunners remain on course for county glory after sparkling display
Ballygunner's Eoin Cuddihy fires over a point during the J.J Kavanagh & Sons Senior Hurling Championship Quarter Final clash with Passage at Walsh Park. Photos: Eddie Dee
Ballygunner produced another devastating performance of shooting with a rampant 2-27 to 2-9 win over Passage in their JJ Kavanagh & Sons Co. Senior Hurling Championship quarterfinal at a sun kissed Walsh Park on Saturday afternoon last.
They got off to a dream start with Patrick Fitzgerald pointing from play inside 23 seconds before Dessie Hutchinson extended the lead from a free after a foul on Kevin Mahony in the second minute to set the show in motion to a facile 18-point win.
Although Passage came roaring back with teenager Rory Jacob scoring a beauty from in front of the North Stand on three minutes before Mark Fitzgerald took an offload from Tom Carey seconds later to send over an early equaliser, it was as good as it got from their viewpoint.
The champions responded with three excellent scores of their own in the space of two minutes, with Fitzgerald landing the first of them on five minutes before Peter Hogan and a brilliant Ronan Power effort from distance put the Gunners 0-5 to 0-2 to the good inside seven minutes.
After Fitzgerald twice missed the target with efforts for points for Ballygunner, Harry Ruddle scored a monster point for his side on ten minutes before Eoin Cuddihy arrived in the quarter-final with a super point of his own two minutes later to stretch the lead.
Mark Fitzgerald put Passage’s first score on the board in ten minutes, on 13 minutes with a fine point from play, before Mikey Mahony responded with a good score of his own, only for Fitzgerald to land his third of the game from distance a minute later.
Despite Tom Carey narrowing the gap with his side’s first point from a free on 18 minutes, the Gunners came storming back with three unreal points from play in a minute. Dessie Hutchinson set the ball rolling before Hogan and Mikey Mahony chipped in with further scores to leave the score 0-11 to 0-5 after 21 minutes on the clock.
Patrick Fitzgerald appeared to have a clear 23rd-minute point waved wide by an umpire after a quick free from Philip Mahony, but the white flag was raised twice in the space of a minute soon afterwards through two Dessie Hutchinson pointed frees.
Harry Ruddle started and finished a brilliant 28th-minute goal for his side when he linked up with Peter Hogan before receiving a reverse pass from Eoin Cuddihy to break forward before drilling the ball past keeper Eddy Lynch.
Ian Kenny was judged to have fouled Passage attacker Rory Jacob on the stroke of the half-time whistle that referee Thomas Walsh spotted, and it was Tom Carey who buried the resulting 20-metre free past a helpless Ballygunner defence to leave the score 1-13 to 1-5 at the break.
The second-half was less than 25 seconds old when Rory Jacob turned his marker before racing at goal, but his rasping of a shot was superbly saved by keeper Stephen O’Keeffe, with Carey putting the resulting 65’ wide before Eoin Cuddihy stretched the Ballygunner lead at the other end with a fine score.
Dessie Hutchinson and Tom Carey shared points from placed balls before Conor Sheahan got on the scoresheet with a neat point. Ballygunner scored their second major on 42 minutes when Peter Hogan’s delivery picked out Patrick Fitzgerald Hutchinson chipped away with two points from aided by Eoin Cuddihy and Kevin Mahony points in between their keeper, Stephen O’Keeffe, making two super saves to deny Jacob and Mark Fitzgerald, before he was finally beaten by a fine Tom Carey strike on 53 minutes.
Pauric Mahony entered the fray for his first appearance of the championship to land two pointed frees with Kevin Mahony also scoring two late on with Conor Tobin’s point in injury-time the final score in a rampant Ballygunner display.
Dessie Hutchinson 0-8 (4f), Patrick Fitzgerald 1-2, Harry Ruddle 1-1, Eoin Cuddihy 0-4, Kevin Mahony 0-3. Peter Hogan 0-2, Mikey Mahony 0-2, Pauric Mahony 0-2 (2f), Ronan Power 0-1, Conor Sheehan 0-1, Conor Tobin (0-1).
Tom Carey 2-4 (1-4f), Mark Fitzgerald 0-3, Rory Jacob 0-1, Gary Cullinane 0-1.
Stephen O’Keeffe; Aaron O’Neill, Ian Kenny, Tadhg Foley; Harry Ruddle, Philip Mahony, Ronan Power; Conor Sheehan, Paddy Leavey; Dessie Hutchinson, Mikey Mahony, Peter Hogan; Patrick Fitzgerald, Kevin Mahony, Eoin Cuddihy.
Eoin O’Brien for Ian Kenny (43), Cormac Power for Patrick Fitzgerald (47), Pauric Mahony for Dessie Hutchinson (50), Conor Tobin for Peter Hogan (53), Cormac Cantwell for Tadhg Foley (56).
Eddy Lynch; Kevin Cullinane, Tom Dalton, Callum O’Neill; Darragh Leahy, Gary Cullinane, David Jones; Mark Fitzgerald, Rory Jacob; Pa Walsh, Sean Cullinane, Mikey Cummins; Tom Carey, Liam Flynn, Sean Kelly.
Noel Connors for Pa Walsh (H/T), Eoghan Reilly for Mikey Cummins (39), Conor Drohan for Callum O’Neill (48), Sean White for Liam Flynn (53), Eoghan Power for Sean Cullinane (54).
Thomas Walsh (Modeligo).
