O’Sullivan’s double fires Tracton to South East junior B title

Tracton 2-20 

Ballinhassig 1-18

JJ HURLEY REPORTS

MICHAEL O'Sullivan's double salvo in the opening 30 minutes of the South East Junior B League final proved decisive against Ballinhassig in Belgooly.

To their credit, Ballinhassig battled hard over the hour, with a late flurry of three unanswered points and a goal from Gavin Sheehan making it a nervous couple of minutes for the Tracton men.

However, the game's opening minutes had seen Tracton race into a three-point lead, with two points from Robin O'Donovan, eventually adding another five over the hour to his total.

Ballinhassig notched their first point after seven minutes, with Gavin Sheehan getting on the scoresheet.

Struggling to come to terms with a stronger, physical outfit, Ballinhassig found themselves in arrears by 0-7 to 0-3 after 12 minutes. The situation worsened moments later, as O'Sullivan cracked the ball to the Blues net.

Sheehan, who was Ballinhassig's talisman over the hour, kept his side in it with two points from frees as Tracton's indiscipline at the back was throwing their opponents a lifeline.

From there to half time, Tracton stretched their lead with another goal from O'Sullivan and a string of points, including two frees from David Griffin, as Eanna Heffernan and two from Sheehan kept Ballinhassig in touch.

With the score reading 2-12 to 0-9 at the beginning of the second 30 minutes, any notion this game was about to peter out was mistaken. In a second period full of drama, a Ballinhassig penalty hit a post, and Tracton's Declan O'Neill saved brilliantly from Shane Kearney. At the other end of the pitch, Tracton had their moments to kill off this tie, as Robin O'Donovan failed to find the net, and David Griffin saw his penalty effort saved by the Ballinhassig netminder.

While Ballinhassig relied on Sheehan for seven second-half scores, including a goal, Tracton's tally was helped by the accuracy of O'Donovan and Kiely.

Despite the late Ballinhassig surge, David Griffin's extra time 65 ensured a five-point victory for the Tracton men.

Scorers

Tracton: Micheal O'Sullivan 2-2; Robin O'Donovan 0-7; David Griffin 0-5 (4f, 1 65); Sean Kiely 0-4; Mark Byrnes, Aaron Lyons 0-1 each.

Ballinhassig: Gavin Sheehan 1-12 (3f); Shane Kearney 0-2; Aaron O’Mahony, Eanna Heffernan, Michael Walsh, Paul Cooney 0-1 each.

Tracton: D O'Neill; R O'Donohgue, K Corrigan, J Kingston; C Walsh, M Byrnes, S Walsh; E Kingston, S Noonan; A Lyons, S Kiely, E O'Callaghan, R O'Donovan, M O'Sullivan, D Griffin.

Subs: R O' Donoghue for Sean Walsh (ht), E O'Donoghue for J Kingston (ht), D Kiely for E Kingston (37).

Ballinhassig: J O'Mahony; Darren O'Leary, David O'Leary, F Lombard; L Kirby, S O'Leary, J Lyne; K Dempsey, E Heffernan; P Coomey, A O'Mahony, W O’Dwyer; K McCarthy, G Sheehan, S Kearney.

Subs: S Butler for K McCarthy (19, inj), M Walsh for W O'Dwyer (44), S Cussen for F Lombard (54).

Referee: M O'Mahony.