The second day of quarter finals in the Mayo GAA Senior Football Championship saw Castlebar Mitchels and Ballaghderreen book their places in the final four alongside Breaffy and Ballintubber.
Clinical Castlebar see off Claremorris
Castlebar Mithcels 1-20
Claremorris 2-9
Castlebar Mitchels kept up their charge for a fourth Mayo GAA Senior Football Championship with an impressive dispatching of Claremorris at the quarter-final stage on Sunday.
Neil Douglas showed why his is one of the deadliest attackers in the club game in the county finishing off the game with six points, all of them from play while Paddy Durcan and James Durcan were electric at times for the Mitchels.
By the 20th minute of the game Mitchels were 0-10 to 0-0 in front with Douglas in imperious form kicking the first two scores of the game inside the opening three minutes.
Danny Kirby got in on the act not long after before Dogulas added the fourth of the afternoon with another excellent finish.
Kirby made it 0-5 to 0-0 with a brilliant score after making a top class run on the loop to create some space for himself.
David Stenson hit Mitchels sixth point from a close range free and Douglas put his side seven up with 15 minutes gone.
James Durcan then slammed over two in a row, before his brother Paddy got in on the act to make it 0-10 to 0-0 ten minutes before the break.
Claremorris did finally get off and running not long after when Conor Diskin rose highest to flick a floating ball from David O’Reilly to the back of the net.
But any thoughts that Claremorris had of getting back into the game were quickly wiped out with the defending county champions adding on another 1-2 before the break, with James Durcan and Douglas landing the points and Aidan Walsh fishing off a flying move to the back of the net just on the half-hour.
The second half was a matter of seeing out the game for Castlebar and despite the best efforts of a Claremorris side who never let the head drop, they did just that.
Diskin kicked the opening point of the second half, seconds after throw-in for the south Mayo men. Aidan Walsh responded to that quickly for Castlebar before Stenson and Paddy Barry traded points.
Both sides went toe to toe on the scoreboard for the rest of the game with James Shaughnessy finishing the day with 1-4 to his name for Claremorris, his goal coming from the penalty spot ten minutes from time.
Despite what they threw at them Mitchels were able to always keep their opponents at more than arms length, with Paddy Durcan kicking three second half points to lead them home and onwards to a semi-final against Ballintubber.
Scores
Castlebar: N Douglas (0-6 ), P Durcan (0-4 ), A Walsh (1-1 ), J Durcan (0-3 ), D Stenson (0-3, 1f ), D Kirby (0-2 ).
Claremorris: J Shaughnessy (1-4, 3f ), C Diskin (1-2, 1f ), D Egan (0-1 ), D O’Reilly (0-1 ), P Barry (0-1 )
Castlebar: R Byrne; D Stenson, N Lydon, D Newcombe; S Conlon, P Durcan, R O’Malley; A Walsh, G McDonagh; S Hopkins, D Vaughan, J Durcan; B Moran, N Douglas, D Kirby. Subs: E O’Reilly for S Hopkins, C Stenson for B Moran, J Maughan for R O’Malley, A O’Boyle for N Lydon.
Claremorris: A McCallig; J Streton, R Finn, S Brennan; P Barry, S Walsh, M Macken; D O’Reilly, B Gallagher; M Higgins, D Egan, J Hutton; S McGreal, C Diskin, J Shaughnessy. Subs: J McCormack for D O’Reilly (BS ), J McCormack for R Finn (BC ), B Quinn for M Higgins, M Mullins for C Diskin (BS ), D Takkos for J Hutton, E Clarke for P Barry, M Mullins for J Shaughnessy
Ballaghaderreen bounce into the semi-finals
Ballaghaderreen 3-11
Garrymore 0-18
Two first half goals from Darragh Kelly and a third from Cian Hanley four minutes into the second half, were the key moments in Ballaghaderreen’s two point win over Garrymore in MacHale Park on Sunday afternoon.
Ballagh’ hit the ground running with Barry Regan, Andy Moran and Darragh Kelly all slotting over points inside the first three minutes of the game.
Garrymore created a couple of half-goal chances themselves in that period but were unable to take them. They did get the scoreboard moving in their favour 11 minutes in through a Paul Deely free. The wing forward ended up the day with eight points to his name in an accomplished display from the Garrymore number ten.
However - the game was spun in Ballagh’s direction dramatically when Kelly hit two gos in two minutes. The first after Luke O’Grady’s effort came back off the bar and he reacted quickest and the other after Cormac Doohan’s shot for goal flew into his path and he fired home from close range.
Garry did battle back and reeled off the next three points through a brace of Deely frees and a Caolan Crowe effort. Barry Regan pushed his side six clear again through a free six minutes before the break, before Garrymore tagged on three more points before the turnaround with Deely kicking one and Mark Tierney tagging on two frees to leave Ballaghaderreen leading 2-4 to 0-7 at the short whistle.
Ryan Lynch extended the east Mayo sides lead early in the second half with a well taken point and three minutes later, Cian Hanley rattled the back of the net from close range to put his team into a 3-5 to 0-7 lead.
Just before Ballagh’s third goal Garrymore had a good chance to grab a major of their own when Cathal Slattery got in behind the Ballaghderreen defence and even though his effort beat Patrick Sharkey in the goal, it was cleared off the line by Seamus Cunniffe.
Conceding the third goal didn’t dispirit the Garrymore cause as they kept coming at their opponents 0-10 to 0-4 for the rest of the game, but they were unable to take the goal chance they needed to give themselves a chance of victory.
Both Brendan Cunningham and Gary Golden almost stole it at the death, but both mens efforts for goal flew over the bar to the relief of the east Mayo faithful who had made the trek to the county grounds for this last eight clash.
Scores
Ballaghaderreen: Darragh Kelly (2-1 ), Barry Regan (0-4, 2f ), Ryan Lynch (0-3 ), Cian Hanley (1-0 ), Andy Moran (0-2 ), Kuba Callaghan (0-1 )
Garrymore: P Deely (0-8, 5f ), M Tierney (0-4, 3f ), G Golden (0-2 ), B Cunningham (0-1 ), S Nally (0-1 ), C Crowe (0-1 )
Ballaghaderreen: P Sharkey; D Drake, S Cunniffe, K Phillips; P Kelly, S Akram, O Jordan; D Kelly, R Lynch; C Hanley, A Moran, K O’Donnell; C Doohan, B Regan, L O’Grady. Subs: K Callaghan for C Doohan, D McBrien for P Kelly, J Dillon for K O’Donnell, S McHugh for B Regan.
Garrymore: B Lynskey; J Oates, K Lydon, J Cummins; T Nally, K Cunningham, C Crowe; B Cunningham, G Golden; P Deely, S Nally, M Connolly; C Slattery, M Tierney, R Quinn. Subs: J Killeen for R Quinn, E Monaghan for M Connolly,
