Power helps Piltown see off gallant James Stephens

Piltown powered into a League final after dispatching a subdued James Stephens side on an overcast chilly afternoon in Danesfort.

Senior county star forward Katie Power was in fine form throughout the game, scoring 1-5 and contributing massively to her teammates scoring also.

Piltown went into this game slight favourites over their city rivals, but few would have said it would have ended that one sided.

Katie Power started the scoring in the third minute as Piltown shot towards the all weather end, although the cross pitch breeze favoured neither side’s shooting.

Her fellow forward Sophie Holden popped up with her first of the day soon after as the girls in black hit the field running, and it took nine minutes for the Village to get their first score from Sophie O’Dwyer as she calmly struck over a free.

Piltown got their first chance from a free soon after and Heather Phelan made no mistake. Stephens centre forward Niamh Deely, who had a fine game throughout, raised a white flag in the 11th minute to leave a point the difference. 

Straight from Aoife Norris’s puck out , the ball was worked through the lines into the hands of Heather Phelan, she handpassed to the onrushing Katie Power, and she bulleted a shot into the net beyond Tara Murphys reach.

How would the Village react after that?  

Truth be told, they weren’t allowed to react as the Piltown girls kept up their intensity, workmate and flawless shooting. Katie got another point, followed by one over her own shoulder from Niamh Culleton.

Piltown were smothering James Stephens now, but the Village were still hurling, still trying, still working.

Rachel Leahy was doing her best, and she scored a point in the 14th minute as they tried to get a foothold in the half.

But try as hard as they could, it was proving futile as Piltown’s passing game was resulting in scores.

Power again scored a point from out on the left side, on the other side Aoife Doyle accelerating and scoring from the right and Sophie Holden and Ellen O’Keeffe scoring from the centre, it was a very hard task for the Village defence to try to stop the tide.

It got even harder, when once again great interplay between Katie Power and Heather Phelan worked the sliotar to Sophie Holden and she made no mistake for Piltown’s second goal in the 23rd minute.

Sophie O’Dwyer clawed one point back in the 24th minute to finish their scoring for the half.

But Piltown weren’t finished yet, with points from Ellen O’Keeffe, Sinead McCarthy, Sophie Holden and Aoife Doyle ending the first half .

The second half got under way and so did the scoring with Heather Phelan scoring her second point.

James Stephens won their own puckout, worked the ball into corner forward Anna Doheny and from the right hand corner just outside the square, she gave Aoife Norris no chance as she threw the sliotar up and batted the ball into the net.

And then in the 52nd minute Aoife Doyle race through and put a rocket of a shot into the net, just a minute after Village keeper Tara Murphy pulled off a wonderful save when Katie Power was through on goal and Murphy got her hurley high to her right and blocked Powers shot.

Katie scored two more points in injury time to put Piltown through to a League final against Dicksboro.

Teams and Scorers

Piltown: Katie Power (1-5), Sophie Holden (1-4), Aoife Doyle (1-2), Heather Phelan (0-5, 0-3 frees),
Ellen O’Keeffe(0-3), Niamh Culleton, Sinead McCarthy, Aine Doyle (f) (0-1 each)

James Stephens - Anna Doheny (1-1) Sophie ODwyer (0-2, 0-1 free), Niamh Deely, Emma Manogue,
Caoimhe Moran, Rachel Leahy (0-1 each)

Piltown: Aoife Norris; Lorraine Long, Kellyann Doyle, Jenni O’Dea; Emer Long, Laura Norris, Emily
McCarthy; Aoife Doyle, Katie Power; Aine Doyle, Niamh Culleton, Ellen O’Keeffe; Sophie Holden, Heather Phelan, Sinead McCarthy.

James Stephens – Tara Murphy; Cady Boyle, Emma Gaffney, Hannah Larkin; Jennifer Leahy, Aoife
Cantwell, Hannah Scott; Michelle Teehan, Emma Manogue; Sophie O’Dwyer, Niamh Deely,
Anna Doheny; Caoimhe Moran, Ciara Delaney, Rachel Leahy.