Deadly duo fire St Etchen's to fine victory

St Etchen's 1-15 Coosan NS 2-6

Inspired by their dynamic attacking duo of Eric Leonard and Killian Dardis, who scored all bar a point of their sizeable total between them, St Etchen’s, Kinnegad wrapped up the Cumann na mBunscol finals with a fully deserved six-point win against a fine Coosan NS side in a very entertaining 25 minutes-a-side Division 1 football final.

Senan Kelly opened the scoring with a great free for the side in black and red, but wind-assisted St Etchen’s went to dominate the remainder of the first half, putting together a range of eye-catching moves and scoring ten unanswered points in the process. The aforementioned twosome shared nine of them – Leonard (six, including one free) and Dardis (three, also including a free), with Peter Gorman kicking the other from a tight angle in the eighth minute. The Kinnegad outfit led by 0-10 to 0-1 at the break. Dardis increased the winners’ lead some two minutes after play resumed, but a well-taken goal from James Purtill gave Coosan a little hope a minute later. Leonard responded with a point, but the South Westmeath outfit kept plugging away and were rewarded with four fine points from the boots of Senan Kelly (three – two of them from frees) and another from Corey Kelly, to leave the deficit at four points (0-12 to 1-5).

A Dardis brace (the second of them from a free) settled Kinnegad’s nerves, and when the same player scored a great goal with seven minutes of normal time remaining, they already had one hand on the cup. Leonard added another point from play, before a never-say-die Coosan side rounded off match scoring with a Senan Kelly free and a great goal from skipper Cian Mannion. After the match, the chairman of Cumann na mBunscol in Westmeath, Derek Butler presented the cup to the winning captain, Dylan McNevin.

Scorers – St Etchen’s: K Dardis 1-6 (0-2f), E Leonard 0-8 (1f), P Gorman 0-1. Coosan NS: S Kelly 0-5 (4f), C Mannion, J Purtill 1-0 each, C Kelly 0-1.

St Etchen’s, Kinnegad panel: Joey Kiernan, Charlie Fox, Donnacha Farrell, Cormac Maguire, Ayo Adebambo, Dylan McNevin, Zach Campbell, Andrew Leavy, Eoin Campbell, Peter Gorman, Eric Leonard, Cillian McGarry, Lochlann Coyne, Killian Dardis, Danny Haigney, Desire Ikezor, Macdaragh Murray, Oliver Fallon, Daniel Wiley, Liam Geraghty, Tyler Coyne, Maks Bujok, Ethan Davis, Hayden Moore, Luke Somers, Mason Fox, Conor Dineen, John Gaughan, David Leavy, Mason Kelly, Freddie Fogarty, Kayden Phillips, Michael Ward, Eibel Arun, Sean Macken, Oisin Murphy, Max Haigney.

Coosan NS panel: Michael Union, Daniel Sleator, Robert Connor, Nakori Temple, Fionn Clarke, Senan Kelly, Youssef Elhadidy, Cian Mannion, Luke Clarke, Dylan Cunningham, Eoghan Silke, Ian Bednarek, Olly Nicholson, Corey Kelly, James Purtill, Brian Feeney, Aaron Costello, Adam Naughton, James McLoughlin, Donnacha Harrison, Donncha Hughes, Ryan Gill, Anthony Atendido, Jack McCauley, Albert Mazgakski, Ruairí Hayden, Jamie Costello, James Doyle.

Ref: Sean Carroll (The Downs).