First blood to Setanta with victory over St Eunan's in Senior Hurling League

A much stronger Setanta side had a deserved victory over St Eunan’s who fielded seven debutants at O’Donnell Park in the first fixture of the 2022 Senior Hurling League.

St Eunan’s 0-9
Setanta 3-12

The top two teams in last year’s senior hurling championship and league opened this year’s campaign in O’Donnell Park on Sunday, with Setanta emerging with a comfortable win.

Early points from Oisin Marley and Dean Harvey of Setanta were replied to by Peter Kelly and Matt Ahern. A five minute spell in the middle of the half proved decisive in the match. Josh McGee struck two fine individual goals in the 11th and 13th minutes.

This was followed almost immediately by a red card for St. Eunan’s Cormac Finn. With a seven point deficit and a man down, it was a long way back for the home team. The rest of the half was low scoring, with Marley and Kelly pointing two frees each, leaving the score at  0-5 to 2-8 at the break.

Mother and daughter help St Eunan's to league win over Moville

The Letterkenny side produced a fantastic victory, coming from behind to overcome Moville at O'Donnell Park

Almost immediately after the restart a St. Eunan’s short puck out broke down and Ryan Coyle took full advantage to finish to the net. To their credit, St. Eunan’s battled well after this setback, winning a lot of possession through Colm Flood, Steven Doherty and Sean Halvey. 

However, they found it hard to score against a defence with Mark Callaghan and Steven McBride very strong. The remainder of the game played out as a stalemate, with four points a piece through Harvey, Marley and McGee, replied to by Kelly and Paul O’Donnell. While the Letterkenny men had chances, the result was never in doubt, finishing 0-9 to 3-12.

St. Eunan’s:  Cian Hennessy, JP Curran, Lorcan Heavey, Sean Halvey, Conor Neely, Steven Doherty, Mark Connaughton, Colm Flood, Peter Kelly (0-7 frees), Paul O’Donnell (0-1), Ryan Hilferty, Thomas Crossan, Cormac Finn, Matt Ahern (0-1), Gavin Forde.  Subs: Daire McBride, Mark Mulholland, Ronan Kelly, Eoin Scanlon, Shane Maguire, Johnny Lambe, Matthew Noonan, Eunan O’Donnell.

Setanta:  Mark Kane, Ruairi McLaughlin, Simon McMenamin, Denim Rowan, Mark Callaghan, Steven McBride, Travis Lafferty, Conor McGettigan, Richie Kee, Ruairi Campbell, Oisin Marley (0-7, 0-6 frees), Dean Harvey (0-4), Ryan Coyle (1-0), Josh McGee (2-1), Marc Devine.  Subs: Pauric Moss, Ryan Callaghan, Kevin Campbell.