Eire Óg Claim Benburb Cup

Saturday 12.09.2020

Club

The Benburb Cup returns to Carrickmore after Eire Óg defeated Eoghan Ruadh Dungannon in a cracker of a final at Healy Park on Saturday winning 3-13 to 2-11. The Carrickmore side’s aggression and commitment knocked the reigning champions off their stride and three well finished goals was the least they deserved for their first half exploits.

Damian Casey opened the scoring with a free and Eire Óg keeper Conor Mc Elhatton was forced into a superb stop from Brennan Molloy as Eoghan Ruadh forced the early pace. However with Conor Grogan, Dermot Begley and Cormac Munroe responding to the challenge Eire Óg were soon creating chances and taking them.

A flurry of early points had Eire Óg one in front 0-3 to 0-2 before Sean Óg Grogan hit Eire Og’s first goal of the half. Casey responded with three converted frees but a point from Brian Mc Gurk and two goals in the space of two minutes from Sean Óg Grogan and Cormac Munroe put the Carrickmore based side 3-5 to 0-5 in front with twenty three minutes on the clock.

Eoghan Ruadh looked all at sea but Casey responded once more with a long range free to narrow the gap to eight. Eire Óg captain Dermot Begley landed a superb free of his own before points from Munroe and the two Grogans put Eire Óg twelve clear. Eoghan Ruadh added two points in injury time from Casey and Lorcan Devlin at the end of the first half to leave a “mere” ten points between the teams at the break.

Eoghan Ruadh were much improved after the restart as they sought to close the gap and keep alive their hopes of three in a row. An early Casey point narrowed the gap but Begley and Justin Kelly replied for Eire Óg as Dean Rafferty, Jarlath Kerr and Sean Pól Begley repelled everything Eoghan Ruadh could throw at them.

Substitutes Michael Little and Cain Ferguson pointed either side of a Keifer Morgan goal to give the Dungannon side hope. A pointed free from Begley extended the gap once more but the Dungannon lads continued to pour forward. With seven additional minutes announced Michael Little raised hopes of the great escape with a fine goal to make it Eire Óg 3-12, Eoghan Ruadh 2-11. Another goal was needed but the Eire Óg defence stood strong and in spite of Eoghan Ruadh’s best efforts saw out the game with a late Darragh Grogan point securing a five point win.