Portlaoise CBS Leinster championship hopes end at hands of clinical Gorey

The senior footballers of Portlaoise CBS have exited the Leinster schools senior championship after coming away from Gorey on Tuesday empty handed.

It was a bridge too far for the Portlaoise school who in truth, played second fiddle for the entire game and found it extremely hard to deal with the standard of football that Gorey Community School produced.

PORTLAOISE CBS 0-7

GOREY COMMUNITY SCHOOL 4-15

SOUTH LEINSTER SENIOR 'B' FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI FINAL

The concession of two goals in the space of a minute just before the first half water break proved the critical period as an even enough game up until that point turned the opposite direction as the Wexford school powered home comfortably to victory.

Portlaoise CBS will look back on the game and have no complaints as they were bet fair and square by a far superior team. They did well to get to the final and had some impressive displays in getting to the last four but it was the Gorey men to brought their campaign to an end on a mild and sunny day in the school pitch in Gorey CS.

Gorey opened up an early 0-2 to 0-0 lead inside five minutes but the Portlaoise men hit straight back. David Costello kicked over the first of his five frees before another free, this time from DJ White, levelled the game after 11 minutes.

At this early stage, you couldn't see a 20 point margin being the difference after 60 minutes but soon after Portlaoise equalised, Gorey began to pull away. They hit 2-2 on the spin in the space of three minutes with Cian Hughes and Cathal Murphy firing in the goals.

Kieran O'Donnell did reply with a super score just before the water break but the Laois school trailed 2-5 to 0-3 at the water break.

That score from O'Donnell proved to be the last of the half for Portlaoise and their only score from play in the game. Goalkeeper Casper Banasik made a fantastic save to limit the damage with 10 minutes left in the half but points from Gorey midfielders Jack Higgins and Rian Fitzpatrick gave the Wexford side a healthy 2-7 to 0-3 lead at half time.

Fitzpatrick and David Costello exchanged frees early in the second half before keeper Banasik was once again called into action to deny Gorey a third goal.

It was a case of damaged limitation at this stage as they trailed 2-10 to 0-5 at the second water break.

Portlaoise never threw in the towel and kept trying to find a way through for goals but the only decent sight at goal they got saw Costello pulled up for overcarrying.

Unfortunately for Portlaoise CBS, after keeping their goals in tact for the second half, with five minutes to go, Gorey pounced for their third goal with Rian Fitzpatrick slotting home a penalty. A fourth goal followed in stoppage time and the final margin saw Gorey 20 points to the good.

Best for Portlaoise CBS were Casper Banasik, Ben Dempsey, Jake Darcy and David Costello

PORTLAOISE CBS

Scorers: David Costello 0-5 frees, DJ White 0-1 free and Kieran O'Donnell 0-1

Team: Casper Banasik; Dylan Keyes (The Heath), Ben Lalor (The Heath), Barry Fitzpatrick (Portlaoise); Jake Darcy (Annanough), Ben Dempsey (Portlaoise), Conor Raggett (Portlaoise); Colin McEvoy (Portlaoise), Josh Hogan (Portlaoise); Daire McDonald (Timahoe), Liam Og Brennan (Portlaoise), Conor Buggie (Stradbally); David Costello (Emo), DJ White (Portlaoise), Kieran O’Donnell (Portlaoise). Subs: Cian Nolan (Park Ratheniska) for Liam Og Brennan (28), David Miller (Annanough) for Conor Raggett (50), Ben Doyle (The Heath) for Conor Buggie (53), Sean O'Sullivan (Portlaoise) for Dylan Keyes (54)

GOREY CS

Scorers: Rian Fitzpatrick 1-5 (0-2 frees, 1-0 pen), Cian Hughes 1-2, Cathal Murphy 1-1, Gavin McNulty 1-0, Tomas Wheatly and Shane Flood 0-2 each, Jack Higgins, Luke Darley, JJ Twamley 0-1 each.

Team: Eoin Blanchfield; Conor Kelly, Conor Jones, Darragh Fitzpatrick; Luke Darley, Brian Cushe, Andrew Smyth; Jack Higgins, Rian Fitzpatrick; Dylan Cooke Leonard, JJ Twamley, Michael McGonigle; Shane Flood, Cathal Murphy, Cian Hughes: Subs: Gavin McNulty, Tomas Wheatly and Tomas Mythen.