St Brigid's Takes Shield Final

St Brigid's

New York 4-5 Rockland 2-1

In the local battle for the shield title at under-17 St. Brigid's used a dominating second half performance when they outscored their opponents by 2-03 to take the title in a well played final.

St. Brigid's jumped out into a two point lead with scores from Ashley O'Sullivan and Theresa Daly but were cancelled out and then some by a point from Nicole Weir for Rockland, and then a goal from Kim Hurley after a long ball was touched into her path in front of goal.

Siobhan Pearson also had a chance at goal but her screamer went agonizingly across the face of the goal and wide. Two frees went wide for New York as both sides had chances in a battling first half before O'Sullivan scored St. Brigid's first goal to put her team back into a narrow lead.

They would never relinquish it, however, and added a goal by Katie McEvoy and a Katie Kilkenny point before Gemma Mahoney had the final score of the first half, a goal for Rockland that again narrowed the lead to a minimum.

Despite Rockland's best efforts it was all St. Brigid's in the second half with a further 2-3 without reply on the board. Marie Dunleavy chipped in with 1-1 and was denied by a brilliant save by Megan Conroy on a second goal effort.

Conroy had two further excellent saves before O'Sullivan had the fourth Brigid's goal. While the Saints deserved their win with the dominating second hand performance, certainly Rockland had a huge part to play in a hugely entertaining contest.

Stars to look for in the future based on this showing are Megan Conroy, Siobhan Pearson, Gemma Creavan and Courtney Traynor for Rockland, with Roisin Clarke, Stephanie Tierney, Katie Kilkenny, Ashley O'Sullivan who was brilliant, Kelly McArdle and Molly Boyle all standing out for the winners.

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Nster.com