County Senior Football League, Division 2, Round 3.

Templenoe 1-19, Fossa 0-20.

Templenoe edged Fossa in a cliffhanger to maintain their 100% record in this year’s county league at Templenoe GAA Grounds last Saturday evening.

Despite playing against the breeze for the first half it was Fossa who dominated the early exchanges as they raced into 0-00 to 0-04 lead after 9 minutes of play, with Emmet O’Shea firing on all cylinders including one 2pointer from a free. It took 10 minutes for the hosts to get their first score with Brian Crowley the provider, before Aidan Crowley added another from a placed ball. Emmet O’Shea traded points with Aidan Crowley (f) to make it 0-03 to 0-05 at the end of the first quarter.

Mark Looney was called upon to make a important save from Fossa’s Killian Buckley after he got inside the Templenoe defence. Nonetheless Fossa went on to extend their advantage to 0-08 to 0-04 by the 20th minute following scores from Emmet O’Shea, Eoin Talbot, Ted O’Gorman and Matt Rennie. Templenoe’s sole score in that period came from Mark Casey with a lovely score from an acute angle. However, the hosts finished the first half strongly with Aidan Crowley (2f), Brian Crowley, and a 2 pointer from Mark Casey creating a five points turnaround to put Templenoe in the lead for the first time just ahead of the half time whistle.

Half Time Score: Templenoe 0-09, Fossa 0-08.

On resumption, Fossa immediately equalized courtesy of Harry Buckley, before Templenoe hit another purple patch to enable them to pull four points clear through Aidan Crowley (3) and Brian Crowley. But soon after Fossa would reduce the margin to two points again as the ebb and flow nature of this game continued to ensue. By the end of the third quarter the score was 0-15 to 0-13, with Matt Rennie, Emmet O’Shea (2) and Dan O’Keeffe finding the range for the East Kerry side, while Adrian Spillane and Daniel Crowley kept the scoreboard ticking over for Templenoe.

The last quarter saw both sides go all out for the win. It was tick for tack with Templenoe maintaining their lead, but Fossa were staying right with them. With five minutes of normal time remaining the score was 0-18 to 0-16. Colin Crowley, Mark Casey and Aidan Crowley (f) were on target for the hosts, while Dan O’Keeffe, Harry Buckley and Rian Colleran replied in kind for the visitors. The stage was set for a grand stand finish. Emmet O’Shea traded points with Brian Crowley, before the former hit a wonderful 2 pointer to make it 0-19 points apiece as the game went into added time. Then cometh the hour cometh the man, Adrian Spillane got himself into a goal scoring position following good build up play and for the third county league game in succession he found the net for a crucial goal for Templenoe. Fossa had one last hurrah and earned a close in free, but they just couldn’t find a pathway to goal with Tadhg O’Shea having to settle for pointed free with their last throw of the dice.

Final Score: Templenoe 1-19, Fossa 0-20. 

Scorers:

Templenoe: Aidan Crowley 0-08 (7f), Adrian Spillane 1-01, Brian Crowley 0-04, Mark Casey 0-04 (1 2pointer), Daniel Crowley 0-01, Colin Crowley 0-01

Fossa: Emmet O’Shea 0-11 (2 2pointers) (3f), Harry Buckley 0-02, Matt Rennie 0-02, Rian Colleran 0-01, Eoin Talbot 0-01, Ted O’Gorman 0-01, Dan O’Keeffe 0-01, Tadhg O’Shea 0-01 (1f)

Wides:

Templenoe 5

Fossa 6

Teams: 

Templenoe: Mark Looney, Michael Hallissey, Kieran O’Neill, Ciaran Crowley, Martin Reilly, Gavin Crowley, Joseph Sheehan, Adrian Spillane, Sean Sheehan, Hugh Granville, Mark Casey, Daniel Crowley, Aidan Crowley, Brian Crowley, Colin Crowley.

Fossa: Shane O’Sullivan, Dan O’Connell, Cian McCarthy, Anthony O’Keeffe, Rian Colleran, Kieran O’Sullivan, Brian Mayers, Paddy Sheehan, Darren Ryan, Eoin Talbot, Matt Rennie, Harry Buckley, Killian Buckley, Ted O’Gorman, Emmet O’Shea.

Subs Used: Tadhg O’Shea, Dan O’Keeffe, David Butler.

Referee: Evan Horan