St Eunan’s show no mercy to Carndonagh in lopsided Senior Hurling Championship clash 

St. Eunan’s closed their senior hurling championship round robin campaign with a high-scoring win over Buncrana in O’Donnell Park on Friday.

The Letterkenny team opened strongly with two first-quarter points each from Cathal O’Brien, John Kealy and Kevin Kealy, along with a further score by Matt Ahern.

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Buncrana’s sole reply came from a Caolan O’Neill free. A Cian Randles goal on 18 minutes ended the game as a contest when he finished a good team move. O’Brien and Ahern added two further points each before Randles raised his second green flag after being set up by John Kealy.

Late points exchanged by O’Brien and O’Neill left the score at 2-12 to 0-2 at half-time. The home team’s dominance continued on the restart with early points from O’Brien and Brian MacIntyre followed by a Kevin Kealy one-handed finish to the net on 33 minutes.

Kevin Kealy, David Horgan, O’Brien and Fearghal Delaney pointed, with O’Neill hitting two frees for the visitors. The last quarter was one-way traffic, starting with goals from Randles and David Horgan on 48 and 49 minutes. St. Eunan’s scored heavily in the last ten minutes against a tiring Buncrana team.

Kieran Larkin, O’Brien and Randles pointed before Peter Kelly ran through the defence to goal from close range. Randles then rounded off his fine personal tally with a fourth goal to finish a team move.

Brian MacIntyre with two points, Conor O’Grady and Randles closed the scoring for a comprehensive home win. With St. Eunan’s topping the round robin group, they will now face MacCumhaills in next weekend’s senior hurling semi-finals. Setanta and Burt will meet in a repeat of last year’s county final.

St. Eunan’s scorers: Cian Randles 4-2; Cathal O’Brien 0-8, 5f; Kevin Kealy 1-3; David Horgan 1-1; Brian MacIntyre 0-3; Peter Kelly 1-0; Matt Ahern 0-3; John Kealy 0-2; Conor O’Grady, Kieran Larkin and Fearghal Delaney 0-1 each.

Buncrana scorers: Caolan O’Neill 0-4, 3f.

St. Eunan’s: Cian Hennessy, James O’Donnell, Conor McVeigh, Sean Halvey; Conor Parke, Conor O’Grady, Kieran Larkin; David Horgan, Fearghal Delaney; Matt Ahern, Cathal O’Brien, John Kealy; Kevin Kealy, Cian Randles, Brian MacIntyre.

Subs used: Brendan Horgan, Peter Kelly, Oisin Randles.

Buncrana: Tom Clare, Daniel Deery, Ciarán McLaughlin, Máirtín Shiels; Caolan Mulholland, Jack O’Loughlin, Ruairí Doherty; Peter Grant, David Carey; Aedan Stokes, Ross Doherty, Dylan Duffy; Sam Doherty, Caolan O’Neill, Kevin O’Rourke.

Subs used: Jack Callaghan, Adam Houten.