Kilcavan one win away from historic Senior Football Championship place

Kilcavan are one step closer to playing in the Senior Football Championship for the first time as they defeated Mountmelick by three points in Friday evening’s Laois Shopping Centre IFC semi-final.

Liam Lonergan’s side should probably have put the game to bed inside the first 10 minutes, but couldn’t take their multiple goal chances and kicked a few wides too. They led two points to one after eight minutes, but it could have been a lot more and left Mountmellick in the game.

Within two minutes of the game starting, Rory Lalor and Ian Dunne both had shots saved by Adam Connolly. Kilcavan’s Niall Lalor kicked the game’s first score with Shane Conran replying down the other end four minutes later. Kilcavan kicked two scores in a row thanks to two frees from Cian Ryle after Mountmellick didn’t have three players in the Kilcavan half for the first one.

Mountmellick hit Kilcavan with a suncher punch with 12 minutes on the clock when Ja Connolly set up Tadhg Culliton to find the back of the net. Kilcavan responded in the best way possible when Sean Lalor rose highest at the back post to palm the ball into the Mountmellick goal. Connolly kicked his only score to reduce the gap to a single point with 13 minutes of the half left.

Kilcavan finished the half with three scores unanswered to lead by four points at half-time. Aaron Tarpey, Niall Lalor and Ian Dunne all raised white flags as they led 1-6 to 1-2. Ja Connolly was denied a second Mountmellick goal when Killian Doyle made a great save to deny him.

The second half was slow to get started, with just two points scored from minute 30 to 40. They both came from the boots of Mountmellick players, as Conran pointed a free and Jim Scully scored from play. The decisive moment arrived after Scully’s point, as Evan Hunt played a great ball into Adam Hunt and he made no mistake to keep up his goal-scoring record in this year’s championship.

Adam Hunt pushed Kilcavan six points clear and it came from a great turnover from Tarpey on the halfway line. Sean Lalor then made it a seven-point game and Kilcavan looked to be cantering towards the Intermediate final. Mountmellick’s reply was to score a second goal and it was simple in its making. Scully’s big ball in found Colm Coss and he smashed the ball home. Further points from Scully and Conran (free) cut Kilcavan’s advantage to two points with 10 minutes to play.

The 2024 Junior ‘A’ champions began to take the sting out of the game from here and held onto the ball. It allowed them to create space in the Mountmellick defence, which saw Rory Lalor and Ryle score a point each. Jack Gorman’s scrambled effort went over the bar in injury time to set up a frantic finish, but Mountmellick couldn’t muster up a chance at goal to bring the game to extra time.

Kilcavan will play the winner of Ballyfin and Ballylinan in the final two weeks.

FINAL SCORE

Kilcavan 2-10

Mountmellick 2-7

SCORERS — Kilcavan: Adam Hunt 1-1, Cian Ryle 0-3 (0-2 frees), Niall Lalor and Sean Lalor 0-2 each, Aaron Tarpey, Ian Dunne, and Rory Lalor 0-1 each. Mountmellick: Tadhg Culliton and Colm Coss 1-0 each, Shane Conran 0-3 (0-2 frees), Jim Scully 0-2, Jarlath Connolly and Jack Gorman 0-1 each.

KILCAVAN: Killian Doyle; Tristan Hunt, Mick Birmingham, Michael Hyland; Rob Hunt, Evan Hunt, Niall Lalor; Aaron Tarpey, Dara Hughes; Ian Dunne, Cian Ryle, Ronan Gorry; Rory Lalor, Sean Lalor, Adam Hunt. Subs: Gearoid Treacy for S Lalor (55 mins), Ben O’Keefe for E Hunt (61 mins), Paul Bolton for Hughes (64 mins).

MOUNTMELLICK: Adam Connolly; Aidan Byrne, Robbie McEvoy, Shane Conran; Cian Rafter, Jack Gorman, Tom O’Connell; Oisin Hade, Tadhg Culliton; Pete Culleton, Jim Scully, Shane Conran; Darren Fitzpatrick, Colm Coss, Jarlath Connolly. Subs: Rory Culleton for Byrne (27 mins inj), Ciaran McHugh for McEvoy (ht), Finn Culleton for Culliton (41 mins), David Kelly for P Culleton (55 mins), Conn Maher for S Conran (61 mins).

Referee: Hugh Coghlan (Park-Ratheniska)