ATU Donegal 5-19DCU 2-11
BY MATTHEW WILSON
ATU Donegal booked their spot in the Fresher Football League Division 2 Final courtesy of an emphatic victory over DCU at the Donegal GAA Centre on Monday evening.
The Donegal outfit produced a brilliant Act One display in this encounter which saw them lead their opponents by 13 points at the break, leaving them in a commanding position to secure the victory on the night.
The visitors got the evening’s scoring underway, with Levi Harley swinging over a superb two-pointer after two minutes.
ATU Donegal hit back with four points without reply through Shane Callaghan (2) and Danny Brown (2).
However, the Dublin University responded with two of their own courtesy of Ryan Donnelly Finn and Tadhg O’Cathail to leave us all square on the quarter hour mark.
On 17 minutes, ATU Donegal kicked home their first major. Bailey McBride played a great pass into the path of Donal Gallagher and the Naomh Brid clubman darted through and placed the ball into the bottom corner.
DCU hit back with a point through PJ O’Reilly before the Letterkenny based university hit their second three pointer, with Shane Callaghan firing the ball beyond Jakub Iwanski.
Moments later, the hosts had the ball in the back of the net for a third time as Darragh Hennigan squared the ball to the awaiting Garvey Meade who palmed it home to stretch their lead to eight points.
The Dublin side continued to battle and soon found two white flags, with Sean O’Brien hitting the target twice for his team.
Although ATU Donegal added a further four points to their tally courtesy of the boots of Shane Callaghan (2), Gavin Doherty and Darragh Hennigan before they landed goal number four through a powerful strike from Doherty.
Bailey McBride and Sean O’Brien (free) traded scores in the closing stages of the first stanza to leave the home side 13 to the good at the break. Shane Callaghan and Aaron McHugh exchanged white flags in the opening couple of minutes of Act Two before the Donegal outfit kicked a further two scores through Bailey McBride and Danny Brown (free) to extend their cushion to 15 points.
On 40 minutes, the hosts kicked their fifth and final major as Gavin Doherty latched onto a stray kickout, played a one-two with Brown before slotting the ball into the back of the net.
ATU Donegal continued to keep the foot on the throttle, landing the contest’s next six scores.
This fruitful spell began with a superb point from Shane Callaghan before further scores courtesy of Danny Brown (3), Darragh Hennigan and Gavin Doherty pushed their lead to 24 points.
As we entered the closing five minutes, Levi Harley and Joey Barrett swapped scores before the visitors bagged themselves a quickfire brace of goals through Jack Doyle and James Murphy.
Doyle followed this goal up with a late white flag before Cathal Boland called an end to proceedings, sealing ATU Donegal’s progression to the competition’s showpiece.
Teams
ATU Donegal: Andrew Nicholls; Mark Dwyre, Aaron Neely, Aidan Friel; Killian Gillespie, Donal Gallagher (1-0), Seamus Doogan; Bailey McBride (0-2), Darragh Hennigan (0-2); Shane Callaghan (1-6,2f), Gavin Doherty (2-2), Conor George; Jack Keys, Danny Brown (0-6,1tpf,3f), Garvey Meade (1-0). Subs used: Ronan Walsh, Rory O’Brien, Joey Barrett (0-1), Killian Sampson, Michael Mulrain, Conor McHugh, Callum Doherty Kennedy, Donal McDermott, Eamon Diver, Oisin Quigley.
DCU: Jakub Iwanski; Nevan Corcoran, James Murphy (1-0), AJ Bradhshaw; Ryan Donnelly Finn, David Donnelly (0-1), Evan McKenna; Jack Doyle (1-1), Levi Harley (0-3,1tp); Sean O’Brien (0-3,2f), Conor Meehan, PJ O’Reilly (0-1); Aaron McHugh (0-1), Tadhg O’Cathail (0-1), Ronan Doherty.
Referee: Cathal Boland (Ardara)
