Kildare GAA: Raheens on song as they defeat Sarsfields in U23

Raheens Sean McLoughlin breaks away from the Sarsfields tackle in the Whitewater SC U23 Football Championship

placeholder image — Raheens Sean McLoughlin breaks away from the Sarsfields tackle in the Whitewater SC U23 Football Championship

Whitewater u23 A Championship

Raheens 2-9

Sarsfields 1-9

Raheens got their U23 Championship football campaign off to an impressive with an excellent three point win over Sarsfields in Sarsfields Park on Saturday afternoon.

Played on a very heavy sticky pitch it was the home side who led with the opening point of the half from Ben Scanlon.

Raheens, with six starters from their successful minor squad from six days previously, hit back with a fine goal from one of the stars of that minor win, Gavin Thompson.

The corner forward received the ball in the danger area, turned left and right before firing past Marc Courtney Byrne in the Sarsfields goals.

Jimmy O'Neill was replied to from a similar score from Mickey McGovern before Jake Loakman replied for The Sash followed by a converted penalty after Ben Scanlon was fouled, Callum Bolton making no mistake.

Gavin Thompson (free) and Mickey McGovern raised two white flags for Raheens before the break but Sarsfields added similar scores from Darragh Ryan, Jake Loakman and Ben Scanlon to lead by three at the break 1-6 to 1-3.

Mikey McGovern fired over on the resumption but points from Scanlon and Callum Bolton had the home side four ahead on 38 minutes.

Following a four man move substitute Fionn McCarthy fired over the head of Courtney Byrne and into the top corner of the net to reduce the deficit to one.

Sarsfields had a chance of a goal when Ben Scanlon fired over with the Raheens net minder out of position.

But from here on it was all Raheens with points from Paul Waters, Fionn McCarthy, Jack Taaffe, Mikey McGovern and a Gavin Thompson to record a fine victory by three points — 2-9 to 1-9.

Scorers

Raheens, Gavin Thompson 1-2 (2 frees), Mickey McGovern 0-4, Fionn McCarthy 1-1, Paul Waters 0-1, Jack Taaffe 0-1.

Sarsfields, Callum Bolton 1-1 (penalty), Ben Scanlon 0-4 (1 free), Jimmy O'Neill 0-3 (1 free), Darragh Ryan 0-1.

Teams

RAHEENS: David MacPartlin; Ciaran Kavanagh, Jack Hamill, Cathal O'Toole, Aidan Dunlea; Jack Taaffe, Dara Crowley; Adam Malone, Sean McLoughlin, Fionn Cooke; Gavin Thompson, Mickey McGovern, Niall Dolan. Subs: Conor Kelly for Fionn Cooke (20 minutes); Alan Waters for David Hamill (33 minutes); Fionn McCarthy for Niall Dolan (37 m9inutes).

SARSFIELDS: Marc Courtney Byrne; David Higgins, Jack Mahon, Cian Hughes; Ethan Mountaine, Colm Hartnett, Adam Donoghue; Darragh Ryan, Kyle O'Brien; Callum Bolton, Karl Hartley, Jake Loakman; Jimmy O'Neil, Tadhg Hoey, Ben Scanlon. Subs: Jack Keogh for Ben Scanlon; Kian Flanagan for Kyle O'Brien.

REFEREE: Niall Colgan.