Kilkenny IHL- Saints hold off late Mooncoin rally

St Martin’s made it two wins from two in the Michael Lyng Motors Intermediate Hurling League on Saturday, beating Mooncoin 2-21 to 1-23.

The opening 10 minutes were tight with both clubs finding joy in front of the posts.

Pa Walsh and Shane Kinsella were to the fore for Mooncoin and St Martin’s respectively.

The key score during this period was a goal for the South Kilkenny club, Stephen Wall took possession of a breaking ball, found Pa Walsh in space with the impressive Walsh doing the necessary.

A point apiece from a Shane Kinsella free and Pa Walsh left a goal between the sides at 1-5 to 0-5 and St. Martin’s clicked into gear from this point as Sean Hunt netted a levelling goal in the 13th minute following a cross-goal pass from Dan Comerford.

St Martin’s pushed their advantage to seven points by the 22nd minute. A well executed 65 metre strike from Shane Kinsella opened up a four point deficit in favour of the Muckalee natives before the excellent John Mulhall, who was the creator of a number of St Martin’s golden moments operating between the forwards and midfield, laid off the all important assist to Tristan Roche who bagged his club’s second goal of the game.

St Martin’s finished the half strongly scoring four of the remaining seven scores to lead 2-15 to 1-10 at the half-time break.

Mooncoin started the second half like a house on fire, a brace from Pa Walsh, Sean Gannon and Ciaran Quilty cancelled out an opening point from John Mulhall to eat into the St. Martin’s eight point cushion and reduce the scoreline to 2-16 to 1-14.

John Mulhall and Shane Kinsella remained crucial figures for St Martin’s, Mulhall in the multiple creation of scores and Kinsella with points from frees and play.

This was illustrated by the club’s next two scores, Kinsella converting a 45 metre free and Mulhall kicking-off a move which resulted in Sean Hunt pointing leaving St. Martin’s with a 2-18 to 1-14 score in their favour.

Four points from Mooncoin, 0-3 from Pa Walsh and a score off the stick of Paul Henebry left Mooncoin five points adrift at 2-20 to 1-18 with two minutes of regulation time remaining.

A barren period between the 49th minute and deep into stoppage time resulted in just three points for St Martin’s, two frees from Shane Kinsella and a late point from substitute Joe Maher.

It proved to be enough for the St Martin’s charges as a late valiant effort from Mooncoin just fell short.

Teams and Scorers

St. Martin’s: Shane Kinsella (0-11, 0-8 frees) ; Sean Hunt (1-3) ; Jamie Morrissey (1-0) ; John Mulhall (0-2) ; Donal Shore (0-2) ; Justin Manning, Tristan Roche, Joe Maher (0-1 each)

Mooncoin: Pa Walsh (1-11, 0-5 frees) ; Paul Henebry (0-3 , 0-2 frees) ; Adam Croke (0-2) ;
T Roche, Sean Gannon, Ciaran Quilty, Kevin Crowley, James O’Keefe, James Delahunty (0-1 each)

St. Martin’s: Oisin Kelly; Bill Dowling, Ollie Walsh, Cathal Keegan; Cairn Nolan, Brian Coady, Justin Manning; Shane Kinsella, Tristan Roche; Donal Shore, Harry Kealy, Dan Comerford; Jamie Morrissey, John Mulhall, Sean Hunt

Mooncoin: Eoin Purcell; Cormac Daly, Aidan Doyle, Ryan Carroll; Mark Kearns, Paul Henebry, Cormac Kinsella; Stephen Crowley, Sean Gannon; Ciaran Quilty, Killian Hogan, Kevin Crowley; Adam Croke, Pa Walsh, Stephen Wall.