Round-Up of the Go-Ahead Ireland Senior 2 Hurling Semi-Finals

Ballyboden St Enda’s and Faughs will contest this year’s Go-Ahead Ireland Dublin Senior 2 Hurling Championship final following their thrilling last four wins against Erin’s Isle and Raheny respectively last Saturday afternoon. 

Both matches went right down to the wire with just a point separating the teams by the final whistle in both Farnham Drive and Tymon Park. 

In Finglas, three first-half goals proved pivotal as Ballyboden got the better of Erin’s Isle by 3-12 to 0-20. 

The crucial goals arrived through Darragh Ormsby, Oisín Byrne and Jono O’Driscoll with Ormsby adding three points to his personal tally. 

Both James Roche and Luke Heneghan finished the contest with three points apiece with further scores from Byrne, Daniel Glynn and O’Driscoll worth their weight in gold by the final whistle. 

The hosts’ hopes of overcoming their six-point interval deficit suffered a massive setback as they were reduced to fourteen players within seconds of the restart. 

Despite this numerical disadvantage, they continued to trim their arrears through strong performances by Tadgh Gorman, Conor Berrigan, Darragh Gorman and Mikie Donohoe but their efforts proved in vain by the final whistle as they spurned late chances to bring the contest to extra-time.  

Across in Tymon Park, it proved similarly tense as Faughs pipped Raheny on the line by 1-16 to 0-18 courtesy of a late free from James O’Brien. 

It was inevitable that a free should prove the decisive score in a contest that was dominated by placed balls with O’Brien’s personal tally of 0-6 all coming from frees.

He was also heavily involved in the solitary goal of the game as his free from distance received the feintest of touches from Conor O’Shea on its way to the Raheny net, handing Faughs a 1-7 to 0-8 lead by half-time. 

The hosts were indebted to the likes of O’Shea, David Pryce, Joe Kenny, Colm Leahy and Niall Fitzgibbon for remaining in the hunt and they added to their tally through a trio of Liam Mostyn points and a Brian Murray brace. 

Kenny and Pryce chipped in with a point apiece with the home scoring completed by points from Eoghan McNamara, Ciaran Nagle and Carl O’Mahony. 

For the visitors, it proved a disappointing end to their encouraging campaign with Brian Dunne at half-back and Mark Murphy at midfield excelling throughout. 

Liam Dunne top scored for Raheny with seven frees while Thomas Hurley scored 0-5 (4f) but those scores and two points apiece from Brian Howard and Murphy saw them fall just short by the end. 

There is some consolation for the St Anne’s Park outfit as they now face a promotion play-off with Erin’s Isle to determine who join Faughs in the top flight next year. 

SHC2 Semi-Finals: Erin’s Isle 0-20 Ballyboden St Enda’s 3-12; Faughs 1-16 Raheny 0-18.