Kilbrittain 1-13

Nemo Rangers 0-7

OLIVER O’BRIEN REPORTS

KILBRITTAIN reached the Rebel Óg U18 Division 2 Hurling Championship final after beating Nemo Rangers at Bishopstown 4G pitch on Saturday evening.

The Black and Amber will face Passage West in the decider with details to be confirmed.

Despite the atrocious weather conditions, both teams served up an entertaining hour of hurling.

Nemo played with the elements in the first half and opened the scoring through a Christopher Lennon free after two minutes. Nemo missed a couple of chances before Brian Kelleher opened Kilbrittain’s account from a free five minutes later.

Lennon added his second before a shot from Oisín Jordan was well saved by Darragh Crowley in the Kilbrittain goal. Tom Brophy pointed the resulting 65 to stretch Nemo’s lead, but it was short-lived after a good move following good play by Cathal Callaghan, whose pass found Cillian Madden who found the net for the only goal of the game.

Kilbrittain would not relinquish the lead and points from Kelleher and Daniel Dollard put Kilbrittain a goal up before Jordan added a point for Nemo near the end to leave it 1-3 to 0-4 at half-time.

The rain eased somewhat in the second-half but the conditions were still difficult. Kelleher and Lennon swapped points before Kilbrittain started to dominate in most areas, Loughlin O’Donnell, Gavin O’Shea and Callaghan were strong in this period.

Points from Kelleher and Ronan Sheehy increased the lead for Kilbrittain. Lennon and Kelleher swapped points again from frees. Lennon added his fifth on the three-quarter hour mark but this was to be Nemo’s last score as Kilbrittain upped the ante with Adam Griffin and O’Donnell playing well at this stage.

Callaghan added a point before he was denied a goal by a fine save by Callum McCarthy O’Donovan. Kilbrittain really turned the screw in the closing minutes with four pointed frees from Kelleher and a fine point by Daithí O’Donovan.

Scorers

Kilbrittain: Brian Kelleher 0-9 (8f); Cillian Madden 1-0; Danile Dollard, Ronan Sheehy, Cathal Callaghan, Daithí O’Donovan 0-1 each.

Nemo Rangers: Christopher Lennon 0-5 (fs); Tom Brophy (65), Oisín Jordan 0-1 each.

Kilbrittain: Darragh Crowley; Adam Desmond, Adam Griffin, Cillian Harrington; James O’Mahony, Loughlin O’Donnell, Niall Egan; Gavin O’Shea, Shaye Ustianowski; Odhran Madden, Cathal Callaghan, Brian Kelleher; Ronan Sheehy, Daniel Dollard, Cillian Madden.

Subs: Daithí O’Donovan for Dollard (42), Tom Hogan for Sheehy (59).

Nemo Rangers: Callum McCarthy O’Donovan; Luke Smyth, Luke O’Leary, Cian Herhilly; Cian Power, Tom Brophy, Ryan Deasy; Denis Kelleher, Zach Walsh; Matthew Keenan, Rory Denn, Tom Walsh; Oisín Jordan, Christopher Lennon, Conor O’Brien

Subs: Daire Murphy for O’Brien (16), Sean O’Flaherty for Power, Fiachra Murphy for Deasy (both ht).