Borris-Kilcotton end group stages with victory over Camross

Borris-Kilcotton got off the mark in the 2023 Senior Hurling Championship at their final attempt with a four-point victory over Group B toppers Camross in O’Moore Park on Sunday afternoon. 

Despite the win Borris-Kilcotton are still facing into a relegation play off against The Harps having already lost to Castletown and Abbeyleix. 

BORRIS-KILCOTTON 2-23

CAMROSS 2-19 

Camross will undoubtedly be disappointed at the loss, but it matters little in the grand scheme of things as they are still straight through to the semi-final stage after topping the group. 

The game itself was effectively a dead rubber, and that showed in the lack of intensity from both sides in the tackle. The lack of intensity made for a great display of shooting however, with the majority of the scoring coming from play. 

Aaron Dunphy was exquisite for Borris-Kilcotton, particularly in the second half where he hit five of his seven points from play. 

PJ Scully put in a great display at full forward finishing with 2-2 from play whilst Tomas Keyes was electric for Camross, scoring 1-4. 

Borris-Kilcotton had the wind for the opening half as they hurled into the town end, but they struggled to find their range hitting several wides early on. 

Oisin Bennett fired Camross into the lead on two minutes before PJ Scully levelled from a 65. 

Camross flew into a four point lead when Mossy Keyes jumped on the rebound from a shot by Mark Dowling and Tom Cuddy added a point immediately after. 

Borris-Kilcotton started to find their feet and hit the next five scores in a row. PJ Scully hit two from dead balls and Jer Quinlan, Aaron Dunphy and Dean Carey all struck from play. 

They were soon stopped in their tracks when Mossy Keyes held up the ball well on the 21 before handing to Dowling on the run and he finished neatly. Liam Delaney and Tom Cuddy both pointed from play to put Camross four ahead on 18 minutes. 

The game ebbed and flowed throughout and now it was Borris-Kilcotton’s turn as Scully followed two pointed frees with a goal after a great assist by Neil Foyle. 

Keyes and Aaron Dunphy traded scores in the aftermath and the sides added another two each just before half time as Borris-Kilcotton went in ahead by 1-11 to 2-7. 

The second half turned in to a straight shootout of points as again there was a lack of any real bite or niggle in the game so the forwards had plenty of space at both ends to put on a show of shooting. 

Aaron Dunphy got the first of his five second half points to open the scoring, but the next two came from two backs in black and amber – Lorcan Burke and Eoin Gaughan. 

Neil Foyle and Stephen Dunphy came back with two for Borris-Kilcotton before Zane Keenan hit one back to complete a ferocious opening five minutes. 

Scully, Niall Coss and Aaron Dunphy struck three in a row for Borris-Kilcotton to give them the breathing room of a four-point lead before Dunphy traded two scores with Keyes and Keenan. 

Stephen Dunphy added another two points to his tally only to see them cancelled out by Dan Delaney and Gaughan frees. 

Camross couldn’t get one up on their opponents as Keyes traded scores with Scully, but Camross began to break through late in the game and hit the next four in a row through Collier, Keyes and two from Dowling approaching injury time to level things up. 

Deep in injury time Aaron Dunphy found space to get off a brilliant shot from distance that sailed over and he was involved again moments later when he played a long ball into Scully who battled to win it in the air before striking into the net to put the game beyond doubt.