Ardclough edge it over Leixlip in magnificent shoot-out

Ardclough 5-13

Leixlip 2-13

A second half hat-trick from Eoghan Walsh saw Ardclough overcome a 7-point deficit and secure a win aga inst Leixlip on Friday night.

The game started, once umpires had been sourced from the spectators, with a goal in the first minute after Darragh Melville was played in by Ben Travers.

Ardclough responded with a score from play from Tim Ryan on 3 minutes. Melville was to the fore for Leixlip in the opening exchanges from placed balls and play, but Sean Whelan was proving just as accurate for Ardclough.

On 14 minutes, Cillian Burke out-paced his marked and hit Ardclough’s first goal of the game to level the score at 1-5 a-piece.

Sean Whelan added a point from a long range effort which saw Ardclough take the lead. The sides went score for score through Melville and Whelan, before James Canning played in Cormac Keegan for Leixlip’s second goal of the game.

Sean Whelan responded with a free for Ardclough, but Leixlip went on the get the next 3 scores from Melville (2) and Canning which gave Leixlip a 5-point lead at half time by 2-10 to 1-8.

Leixlip opened the second half with scores from Darragh Melville (free) and Conor Burke, extending their lead to 7 points.

On 33 minutes, Eoghan Walsh latched on to Sean Whelan’s ball over the top to reduce the deficit to four points.

Leixlip got the next two scores courtesy of Darragh Melville from placed balls before Walsh was in on goal again on 36 minutes, cutting the gap between the sides to 3 points.

On 42 minutes Sean Whelan took on his marker and looked like he was about to set up one of his Ardclough team mates who were queuing up on the edge of the square, before he struck himself from an acute angle to level the game. Darragh Melville was on hand again for Leixlip to put them back in to the lead before Tim Ryan played in Eoghan Walsh to complete his hat-trick on 58 minutes.

Stephen Ryan pointed for Leixlip to cut the gap back to one, but Sean Whelan was on hand with two frees in second half injury time to see Ardclough winners by 3 points.

ARDCLOUGH: Martin Fitzgerald, Tadhg McCarthy, James Casey, Sean Buggy, Niall Devane, Aaron Casey, Drew Costello, Kieran Brady, Tim Ryan (0-3), Matthew Stapleton, Sean Whelan (1-10, 8 frees), David Collins, Gavin Stapleton, Cillian Burke (1-00), Eoghan Walsh (3-0). Subs: Patrick O’Malley for Matthew Stapleton (28 minutes), Joshua Morgan for Gavin Stapleton (half-time), Liam Hanley for Sean Buggy (47 minutess), Jonathon Reeves for Patrick O’Malley (49 minutes), Michael Small for David Collins (55minutes)

LEIXLIP: Keith O’Callaghan, Jack Travers, Eoghan O’Sullivan, Dylan Doherty, Conor Higgins, Ryan Doyle, Conor Burke (0-1), James Canning (0-3), Kian Myles, Ben Travers, Dara Mooney (0-1), Stephen Ryan (0-1), Darragh Melville (1-13, 9 frees), John Roche, Cormac Keegan (1-0). Subs: Cillian Nicholson for Ryan Doyle (47 minutes), Alan Murphy for Dara Mooney (61 minutes).

REFEREE: Owen Murphy.