Roche Emmets 0-10 Cooley Kickhams 2-19
The turning point in this fixture came early as captain Andrew McKay, with Roche on top all over, cracked the crossbar with a stinging drive.
Emmets were 0-5 to one in the clear and had the winger’s goalbound rasper lifted the goal at the Dundalk end, the hosts would have amassed a lead their dominance had deserved.
Instead, the ball came bouncing out and while Oisín Nash performed heroics to keep Cooley at bay as they broke down the pitch, all momentum was lost as Kickhams finally started to find their range. Albeit some loose marking led to their major breakthrough which undone all of Roche’s good early work.
Luke O’Connell began like a whirlwind in attack – his point and those from DD Reilly (2), Seán Connolly and Tomiwa Osho guided the boys in blue into a comfortable position.
They led 0-3 to 0-1 at the first waterbreak and extended the gap before Cooley’s pre-half-time burst, which saw them find the net and strike over twice to lead 1-3 to 0-5 at the interval.
Emmets had lost the influential Ryan Rice-Martin to injury, which triggered several positional alterations, and failed to regain their composure in the affair as Kickhams’ power, poise and superior play yielded a second half return of 1-16.
It was 1-15 to 0-7 in Cooley’s favour at the three-quarter juncture and while Reilly continued to lead the Roche charge with points, a second visiting goal added to the scoreboard’s one-sided guise.
Roche: Oisín Nash; James Loughran, Callum Grant, Criomhthann McGahon; Luca Craig-Haye, Matthew McArdle, Taylor Ward; Seán Connolly (0-1), Ryan Rice-Martin; Andrew McKay, Tomiwa Osho (0-1), John Hodgers (0-1); James Corcoran, DD Reilly (0-6), Luke O’Connell (0-1)
Subs: Seán Conlon for Rice-Martin, Eoin Maguire for Conlon, Josh McGuinness for McArdle, Dale Meehan for O’Connell, Conor Litchfield for Hodgers, O’Connell for Connolly, Conlon for Ward
Referee: Damien Connor
