On Friday evening in Hazelwood, Calry St Joseph’s and St Johns met in the first round of the junior championship. Early spells of possession led to many scoring chances for Calry, who converted with points from the energetic Paddy Herity, Patrick Woulfe, Benedict Nwani and Connell Stenson. Gary Golden, who won several balls in midfield from kick outs, fed Patrick Herity who came like a train, through the St Johns defence by exchanged passes with Patrick Woulfe, and Herity rifled a goal into the bottom corner of the net.

St Johns then won a kick out through Mark Lyttle who rose highest to catch a kick out destined for Calry St Joseph’s hands and fed Shane Stenson who was moving with pace towards goal and found Michael Flynn blocking his path, so he turned and hit a fine point from 20 meters. St Johns then won the resulting kick out and managed to put a high ball in to Peter Meehan a short distance from the Calry goalmouth, but was stopped in his tracks with a well-timed tackle by Danny Keown.  St Johns had another scoring chance thwarted when Kevin O Neill could not hold on to a high ball when Carly’s Michael Flynn dispossessed him and hit a kick pass to midfield, resulting in a long range point from Gary Golden.

St Johns battled hard to win the midfield battle but Calry continued to dominate and had players always moving in their forward line, which resulted in a brace of goals for Patrick Herity and another from Patrick Woulfe, leaving the halftime score 4-5 to 4 points. In the second half St Johns started well with points from Peter Meehan and Kevin O Neill, while at the other end Bart Folan made two excellent goals saves. Calry were determined to kill off the game, so fresh legs were despatched from the bench with Ivan Pamanov scoring a great goal sending the defender the wrong way, and Glib Tymushenko striking a rebounded shot, which Bart Folan had kept out, but the follow up was right into the top corner. St Johns had the ball in the net themselves minutes later when James Connelly hit a long kick pass from defence to Shane Stenson who found Peter Meehan who rounded Calrys keeper and scored.

St Johns had two goal chances in the second half and Calrys keeper Ciaran Collum saved both moving swiftly off his line. St Johns competed for every ball in the remaining minutes of the half and had good scores through Shane Stenson and Ciaran Quinn, but Calry kept the attacks coming with a fine goal from Brian Lynch and points from Michael Flynn, Joey Farrell and Cian Gethins finishing strongly and winning the match comfortably.

St Johns: Conor Leonard, Bart Folan, Cormac Roddy, Sean Moore, Alan Macken, Rian Gorman, Mark Lyttle, James Conneelly, Luke Rodgers, Shane Regan, Shane Stenson, Peter Meehan, Brian O Connell, Kevin O Neill, Ciaran Quinn.

Calry St Josephs: Ciaran Collum, Niall Stenson, Danny Keown, Michael Flynn, Benny Nwani, Conor Stinchon, Gary Golden,  Patrick Woulfe, Conell Stenson Paddy Herity, Joseph Farrell, Keelan Ghetins, Ronan Gray,

Subs: Ivan Pamanov, Glib Tymushenko, Daithi Hand, Eamon Kelly, Damian Flynn.