With the postponement of the opening round fixtures, Gaeil Colmcille welcomed Ratoath to Grangegodden for the second round fixture in the U19 Championship.
Despite the scoreboard favouring the visitors who were fully deserving of the their win, perhaps the final result wasn’t a fair reflection on how the game was played with it being highly competitive throughout.
Ratoath got the games opening score inside the opening minute but that was soon cancelled out thanks to an Andrew Gormley point. Kells took the lead in the third minute after Liam Barry was fouled it was left for Oisin Walsh to point from the resulting free to see The Gaeils take the lead.
A Ratoath free on 9 minutes drew the sides level once more but Walsh added his second free in the 11th minute after Barry was fouled once more. The Kells lead should have been increased moments later when the same combination of Barry and Walsh left Walsh with a goal chance but Ratoath had their keeper to thank for keeping out Walsh’s effort.
Gaeil Colmcille would rue that missed chance as Ratoath went straight down the other end and Ronan Byrne made no mistake to rifle past Sean Thornton in the Kells goal. Five minutes later and disaster struck for Gaeil Colmcille as Ratoath capitalised on a Kells kickout and quickly broke through the defence and hit their second goal for the game.
Both sides traded scores in the 20th and 21st minute with Walsh adding his third point of the half. With Rotoath leading by five, that lead would be doubled by the close of the half as they struck for five points in a row to lead 2-08 to 0-04 at the break.
Ratoath stretched their lead to 12 points with the first two points of the half inside the opening six minutes of the half. Gormley added his second point of the game with a well struck point but Ratoath was equal to Gormley’s effort to keep Kells at bay.
There would be no scores for the next fifteen minutes of the game until Ajay Tormey added a free for Kells. Tormey followed that up with a point from play as the Kells men began to rally near the end. With the game heading for the red both sides added a further score each with Barry getting on the scoresheet after his effort he put in throughout the game.
Gaeil Colmcille: Sean Thornton, Tiernan Anderson, Rian Early, Bruno Griffin, Kilian Kelly, Taidgh Dardis, Harry Flanagan, Oisin O’Reilly, Noah Boshell, Andrew Gormley (0-02), Ajay Tormey (0-02), Kevin Carpenter, Andrew Butler, Liam Barry (0-01), Oisin Walsh (0-03)
Subs: Shane Callaghan, Eoghan Flynn, Oisin Sheridan, Keelan Sheridan, Fionn Cleary
