Junior Hurling Championship
Group Three - Round Two
Sarsfields 1-22
All Saints Ballymena 0-5
At The Bearpit
SARSFIELDS opened their championship campaign with a resounding victory over All Saints Ballymena at a rain-soaked Stewartstown Road.
Despite leading by a slim margin of seven points at the break, the hosts bounced back and thumped 16 points to prevail in emphatic fashion in the second half.
In the opening half, which without a goal from Niall Mac an Lia, it could have ended very differently and the sides went in with four between them and realistically should have been level accounting for the series of wides that plagued All Saints in the end of the first half.
The game kicked off with Sarsfields hoping to ascend and prove they are worthy favourites to win the group and competition and they found the net inside 90 seconds of the throw-in.
Cormac Mulligan's launched effort in the opening minutes fell short and looked to be landing in the palm of Ronan McAlister only for the shot-stopper to drop the sliotar and the chance fell to Mac an Lia who blasted the loose ball into the back of the net for an early goal.
Damien Gillian then managed to step up for what would be the away sides only scores of the half as they roared back to the early goal concession and the forward blasted a quick-fire brace over the bar to reduce the deficit to within a point after just ten minutes.
Ballymena were playing knockout hurling and it showed, as despite having less quality they showed far more desire in the opening half of the game and their inaccurate shooting was detrimental.
The hosts would respond as the half wained and Kevin McKernan fired a treble of scores including a free to keep their lead in tact, with scores from Darren Delander and a fantastic strike form Daniel Smyth helping the Paddies close out the half with a firm lead.
Caolan McKernan clears his lines under pressure
Seven points separated the teams at the break, but the away side felt they were worth double their tally if not more, having struck six wides in the opening half which came from very scoreable positions.
Right from the off in the second half the home side ramped up the pressure and Sarsfields found a terrific score from the toss as Cormac Mulligan collected the ball and drove a 40-yard strike between the uprights with the Paddies picking up the momentum from the finish of the first half.
Mulligan had a stellar second half and struck his second in as many minutes blasting over from the far left-wing.
The hosts really found their rhythm and began picking off their opponents with ease as they began to over-run the midfield and half-back lines of Ballymena proving to be pivotal as they kicked on.
Kevin McKernan fired over another free as the conditions continued to worsen on the Stewartstown Road with the rain becoming torrential at the Bearpit.
Fionn Jemfrey got off the mark from a great score which some him collect the sliotar in the far corner before turning and adding another white flag to his sides tally inside the early quarter of the second half.
By the mid-way point the hosts had virtually secured victory, doubling their tally inside by the 50th minute of the afternoon when Daniel Smyth struck another blow to the away side.
All Saints did get their first score from play, but Daniel Gillian had too much on his shoulders and despite firing over two terrific scores shortly after one another, it was too much of a burden for one man to take on and the Paddies ramped up their attacking efforts again for the final ten minutes.
Smyth thumped another point between the uprights and Delander got in on the act by firing over a late double to take the Paddies to 18 points on the board.
Gillian hit the final score of the day for Ballymena, before another four points managed to find the catch net. Cormac Mulligan earned a white flag and Fionn Jemfrey struck twice from short range, before Nicholas O'Mullane scored the final point of the game and the victory was secured.
Ballymena exited the championship with Sarsfields now set to face St Brigid's in a bid for top-spot in their Junior Championship group.
Sarsfields XV: G McKernan; N McGivern, M McCavanagh, D Coleman; J Ward, C McKernan, J Maguire; D Delander 0-4, N O'Mullane 0-1; D Smyth 0-3, K McKernan 0-6 (4F), C Mulligan 0-4; K McArdle 0-1, N Mac an Lia 1-0, F Jemfrey 0-3
All Saints Ballymena XV: R McAlister; K Brady, D McKee, F Cannon; D Gray, R Crooks, L Mulholland; V Esler, H Connon; D Kelly, L O'Rawe, E McGuigan; J Magill, A McGreevy, D Gillian 0-5
