Beragh U14s show spirit and skill to fend off Omagh

Beragh  3-8  Omagh 3-5

BERAGH U-14s showed resilience to repel a determined Omagh side in this very enjoyable Grade Two Championship final at Dunmoyle’s Cardinal MacRory Park.

The game produced six goals, three by each side, as the action moved swiftly from one end of the field to the other. The Red Knights were able to register a few more points plus the Beragh defence worked hard at blocking and clearing danger as Omagh put pressure on to try and turn the match fortunes around.

Play began on Saturday with Beragh quickly into attacking mode and Oisin Porter supplied Jack Devlin with the ball on three minutes for Devlin to drive home an early goal.

Player-of-the–match Aidan Farley was already well into stride up front for Beragh and Farley fired over a fifth minute point. The St Enda’s started to settle better and they did register on nine minutes as Daithi Teague converted a place kick.

Oisin Porter landed a Beragh point in response to Omagh’s opener and Odhran Porter added another point. A surging run from Red Knights midfielder Eoghan Loughran then yielded a second Beragh goal as Loughran himself finished crisply to the net after 22 minutes.

Omagh needed a foothold in the game and Eoin Cuninngham supplied it with a well-taken 27th minute goal. Beragh were soon on the forward march again, though, as Aidan Farley and then Jack Devlin got on the ball for the latter to drill the ball low to Omagh’s net in the 30th minute. This gave Beragh a decent interval lead of 3-3 to 1-1.

Sean Boyle for Beragh curled over the first point of the second half and Omagh lost a player for ten minutes around this time as well. The St Enda’s, however, found renewed reserves as first Eoin Cunningham pointed and then Nathan O’Hagan’s high effort ended up in the net on 43 minutes.

The scoreboard now stood at 3-4 to 2-2 for Beragh but the St Enda’s made more headway in attack and Eoin Cunningham claimed his second goal moving into the closing quarter of an absorbing contest.

Beragh’s lead was down to just two but points from Oisin Porter and Sean Boyle steadied the ship for their team. Oran McCarney landed his second score for the St Enda’s but Aidan Farley replied with a point from play.

Farley then tapped over a free to leave four between the teams. Jamie McGarvey drove over a score for the St Enda’s but Beragh had done enough to secure a memorable win.

SCORERS

Beragh: Jack Devlin 2-0, Aidan Farley 0-3(1f), Eoghan Loughran 1-0, Oisin Porter 0-2, Sean Boyle 0-2, Odhran Porter 0-1

Omagh: Eoin Cunningham 2-1, Nathan O’Hagan 1-0, Oran McCarney 0-2(1f), Daithi Teague 0-1(1f), Jamie McGarvey 0-1