The Roche U17s opened their Championship campaign by welcoming St Pats to Pairc de Roiste on Sunday morning. The boys in blue had prevailed in their league encounter so the Pats arrived determined to gain revenge.
The white hot intensity of Championship football glistened throughout this ding dong battle with both teams refusing to yield an inch.
The visitors won the toss and elected to play with the breeze into the town end. Scores were hard to come by and very much earned but a couple of searing runs from flying winger John Hodgers consistently caused the Lordship lads problems. He had three points scored before another blistering attack set up captain Andy McKay to notch the first goal of the game. Pats stubbornly stayed in the game with some fantastic long range Conor McGuinness scores and when rampaging full forward Adam McCoy bludgeoned the ball in the net, the scores were tied at half time.
The match intensity did not dip in the second with both teams scrambling for an advantage. A brilliant turnover by Luca Craig Haye led to the ball being swiftly moved to Tomiwa Osho whose brilliant run ended with the ball in the Pats net. This left the Roche lads four points up at the second water break. The Pats rallied and led by some great Sean Fearon scores tied the match up with seconds remaining.
The melting pot was well and truly boiling as a great take by Ryan Martin allowed DD Reilly to carry into the heart of the Lordship defence who ended up conceding a free. Reilly was the coolest man in the parish as he stepped up to score his fourth point of the day to all importantly edge Roche ahead. Referee Cathal Sweeney blew full time as the kick out was booted up the field to the delight of the home supporters.
A real team effort with the defence excellently marshalled by Callum Grant and the midfield duo of Sean Connolly and Ryan Martin never stopped working to give the forwards the platform to perform.
The lads' attention switches to a 'winner take all' match against Baile Taluin on Saturday with a much coveted place in the A Championship up for grabs.
