Seniors back to winning ways – Ballyboden St Endas 2 – 17; Lucan 0 – 17
After a few days heavy rain, it was a credit to Lucan that the game could go ahead and their pitch was in excellent condition. With only two of the All-Ireland winning team available, the strength in depth of the panel was going to be tested to the limits. A positive was the first appearance of Andrew Kerin in a Boden jersey since the league game against Vincent’s on 2 April.
After two minutes, a relatively straight forward free was converted by Andrew and it looked as if he had not taken a break at all. This point was quickly cancelled out by Lucan before Alan Flood, in a busy evening, scored from play in the fourth minute and then Lucan took over. They scored 7 points in 10 minutes with our only response being a point from a free from Kerinsie and a great score by Barra McGarry, operating from left half back. Two more quick frees by Andrew were cancelled out by Lucan. A feature of the game up to this point was the number of times that play broke down in the forward area without reaching the full forward line. Then Warren Egan, playing at full forward, moved out field looking for the ball. On gaining possession his immediate reaction was to feed the inside line where Kerinsie won a high ball and fed it quickly to Alan Flood who was powering through. Alan rattled the net. Lucan replied with a point but Kerinsie cancelled this out with another free to leave the half time score, 1 – 7 to 0 – 11. Cian Mellett had been black-carded towards the end of the half and was replaced by Sean Prendergast.
Whatever Andy McEntee said at half time obviously worked. So did the switching of Aran Waters to midfield, Simon Lambert to fullback and Donagh McCabe to centre back. Within a minute, corner forward Brian Kirwan knocked the ball into the Lucan net following a high ball into the square. In the next 20 minutes points were knocked over at will by Declan O’Mahony (2), Simon Lambert (from a 45), Warren Egan(2), Aran Waters, and two frees by Kerinsee. Lucan managed two points during this period of Boden dominance. From the 23rd minute to the end Lucan tried to make a game of it by scoring four points but Kerinsie again from a free and Warren Egan replied with points to leave the final score 2 – 17 to 0 – 17. A double yellow card to the Lucan corner forward with a few minutes to go did not affect the outcome. Cian Murray and Evan Flanagan made their senior debuts late in the half. Well done lads.
TEAM: Darragh Gogan, Cian Mellett, Aran Waters, Cianan Archdold, Collie Dunne, Simon Lambert, Barra McGarry, Declan O’Mahony, Donagh McCabe, Darragh Kilduff, Seamus Keane, Alan Flood, Brian Kirwan, Warren Egan, Andrew Kerin. SUBS: Sean Prendergast for Cian Mellett (black card); Cian Murray for Darragh Kilduff; Evan Flanagan for Seamus Keane.