Roscommon SHC semi-finals: St. Dominic's and Four Roads through to final
Action from the Roscommon SHC semi-final between St. Dominic's and Tremane. Photo courtesy of St. Dominic's GAA club.
Four Roads remain on course for five Kepak Roscommon SHC titles in a row with only St. Dominic’s standing between them and the retention of the Mickey Cunniffe Cup, but they were pushed to the wire by Oran in Ballyforan this afternoon before edging out last year’s beaten finalists by 2-18 to 1-20.
Conor Morris landed a tricky late free from the sideline to edge out the win after Oran rallied from six behind at half-time to draw level, with a stiff breeze at their backs in the second half of the action at St. Aidan’s GAA club.
Oran were by far the happier side midway through the first half with the sides level. Darrack McCormack (Oran) and Adam Donnelly (Four Roads) traded early goals and the next 13 points were shared as well, with Paddy Fallon firing over a string of points for Oran while Liam Óg Coyle looked sharp for the champions, who led by 1-7 to 1-6.
Former Connacht Puc Fada champion Noel Fallon was booming long restarts directly into the Oran goalmouth and a break off one of those puckouts led to Coyle reacting sharply to fire in a second goal. A couple of Morris frees made it 2-11 to 1-8 at half-time but Oran took over in the second half, with Declan Leonard and Eamon Kenny hurling well along the spine of the defence.
Rory Coyle got two fine points for Four Roads but as Micheál Hussey and Cathal Kenny sent over magnificent strikes to keep narrowing the gap, the game was there for Oran to pull off an upset.
Fallon landed his 11th point of the afternoon to level the game in the fifth minute of stoppage time but there was still time for one more play and a trip on Cormac Mulry gave Morris the chance to prevent extra-time and send Four Roads back to the final, where they will meet St. Dominic’s in a repeat of the 2024 decider.
St. Dominic's trailed 0-11 to 1-5 after 37 minutes and 0-12 to 1-8 after 49 minutes but two goals in three minutes from Jack Lohan and Mickey Joe Egan helped the winners on their way.
St. Dominic's laid the foundation for this win in the first half. Despite playing against a strong wind, the sides were deadlocked at 0-7 to 1-4 at half time.
Naos Connaughton netted from close range to give St. Dominic's a 1-1 to no score lead but despite Evan Murray's three points from play and Peter Kellehan's four scores, Tremane struggled to make their wind advantage count.
However they produced their best spell in the third quarter as Kellehan (two), Murray and John Brennan helped them lead 0-11 to 1-5. Eventually St. Dominic's settled as Connell Kennelly, Gavin Staunton and Egan (free) restored parity.
Even though Murray slotted a free thereafter, St. Dominic's took control as Lohan won the break from Mark Miley's booming puckout before netting. Another Miley puckout caused havoc as Kennelly pulled across goal for Egan to finish from close range. Even though Murray cut the gap to three, St. Dominic's bagged the next six scores as Egan nabbed three of those while Miley arrowed over two long range frees to make for a comfortable finish.
