Donegal 2-14 Tyrone 1-19
The Donegal U20s suffered extra-time heartbreak in the Ulster final against Tyrone in Owenbeg.
It was a tense opening with both sides not as clinical as they would have liked and Tyrone took a narrow 0-5 to 0-4 lead at the break, Conor McGinty and Kevin Muldoon with two points apiece for Gary Boyle’s men.
Shane Callaghan and Conor McCahill hit two-pointers but a Joey Clarke goal levelled the game up again.
Tyrone went two ahead before a Sean Martin point and a goal from Cathal ‘Rua’ Ó Gallchóir put Donegal two ahead, but two Ruairi McCullagh frees brought the game to extra-time.
The Red Hands flew ahead in extra-time with two pointers from Eoin McElholm, McCullagh and Shea McDermott to go seven ahead, but a Seanan Carr goal helped reduce that to three points at the break.
Donegal brought it back to a one point game through two points from Shane Callaghan but they were penalised for two men back and McCullagh fired over the easy free.
McCahill shot for goal in added time but it was saved and Turlough Carr’s attempt dropped short as Tyrone held on for the win.
A defensive first half with patient moves from both teams, Tyrone won the throw-in and worked the play until Eoin McElholm kicked wide inside two minutes.
Tyrone tried to get in behind the Donegal defence, with a 1-2 being played into Caolan Donnelly but Sean Martin got a hand in to put it behind for a ’45, which Ruairi McCullagh converted on five minutes.
Noah Grimes fisted over from the right after a pass from Cónán Devlin, while Donegal suffered a blow as Cian McMenamin did well to win the kick out after that point, but injured his ankle on the fall and had to be taken off, with David Monaghan coming in to replace him.
Good work from Callum McCrea saw Donegal get off the mark as he found Conor McGinty who kicked over from close range.
Tyrone attacked at the other end and despite a good tackle put in by the Donegal defence, the ball came out to Matthew Quinn who curled over.
Conor McCahill had a couple of efforts fail to raise the white flag but on the next attack he fed MacCumhaill’s man McGinty who made no mistake.
It was Tyrone now who began to rack up the wides, while Kevin Muldoon was sharp at the other end, showing great pace and agility to beat a couple of Tyrone defenders before kicking over.
Coming up on the half hour mark Donegal went ahead for the first time as Four Masters man Muldoon got the ball on the left and after a great spin past his marker, he curled over for a great point.
But Tyrone added two further scores in added time, Caolan Donnelly fisting over from the right before Daithi Gildea waS penalised for over carrying as Donegal had a good counter attack chance, but the ball came into Ruairi McCullagh who put his side ahead just before the half-time whistle for an 0-5 to 0-4 lead.
That didn’t tell the full story of the half however as Tyrone kicked eight wides, while Donegal had four points from eight attempts.
Gildea was subbed at half-time for Shane Callaghan and the Naomh Columba man made an instant impact, kicking a two-pointer from a central position.
McCahill was next to try his luck outside the arc from the right and he curled over to put Donegal three up early in the half.
But that lead didn’t last long as Paul Devlin’s side attacked down the right and as Joey Clarke shot for a point, it smacked off the post and fell back for the captain in a promising position and he fired low past Pádraig Mac Giolla Bhríde.
Another good move from the Red Hands was cut out inside the large parallelogram but another fortunate bounce saw it come to McCullagh who made no mistake with the effort as he split the posts.
Donegal were then overturned high up and Tyrone punished them as Noah Grimes played a long kick pass into McElholm who quickly laid it off to Conall Sheehy and he fired over from the left.
Sean Martin hit back with a good score inside the arc and a four minute spell of Tyrone possession ended in a free which Grimes dropped short.
Donegal went on the attack next and were almost turned over as Seanan Carr just got the ball to club mate Muldoon, who played a quick 1-2 before bursting through a number of white shirts and finding an unmarked Cathal ‘Rua’ Ó Gallchóir and the Gaoth Dobhair man lashed the ball into the roof of the net on 50 minutes.
That advantage didn’t last more than five minutes however as Gary Boyle’s side gave away two cheap frees and Ruairi McCullagh fired over both with ease while Donegal kicked a few wides, Dylan Mulholland’s attempt bringing them up to five for the half.
Tyrone were patient as they went for a final score with two minutes added and it was Conor O’Neill who tried it with a laces effort but it went just wide of the right post as extra-time loomed, 1-9 apiece after the hour.
But Tyrone kicked into gear early in the first period of extra-time, first with McCullagh converting a free.
But they found their range and kicked a trio of two-pointers, first through county star McElholm and the next from McCullagh outside the 45 metre line.
Substitute Shea McDermott followed next with a huge score to put his side seven ahead and a huge lead in extra-time.
But Donegal battled back once again through a Callaghan free and a brilliant score just inside the arc from McCahill.
It was more of that Four Masters link up as they hit a second goal, Seanan Carr playing a 1-2 with Callum McCrea on the left and the forward jinked in and leathered the ball into the net.
Sheehy added another score before the half-time as Tyrone led by three at the break.
McElholm brought it to four points but Carr and a Shane Callaghan score from range halved the deficit, while a Callaghan free as McCrea was fouled close in made it a one point game.
Controversy struck after as Tyrone had two men forward but referee Kevin Faloon didn’t penalise them, while Donegal were then penalised for the same offence of two back and McCullagh kicked the free.
Donegal went for broke with a minute to play, first as Conor McCahill stuck for a goal but Conan McGarvey made the save at the near post and as Turlough Carr tried to level the game with a two point attempt, Darragh Donaghy smothered the ball and the final whistle went.
Donegal: Pádraig Mac Giolla Bhríde; Aaron Neely, Niall Prendiville, Cathal ‘Rua’ Ó Gallchóir (1-0); Max Campbell, Finnbarr Roarty, Callum McCrea; Sean Martin (0-1), Kevin Muldoon (0-2); Cian McMenamin, Mark McDevitt, Conor McGinty (0-2); Conor McCahill (0-3, 1tp), Daithi Gildea, Seanan Carr (1-2).
Subs: David Monaghan for McMenamin (10 mins), Shane Callaghan (0-4, 1tp, 2f) for Gildea (half-time), Dylan Mulholland for McDevitt (49 mins), Turlough Carr and Donal Gallagher for Monaghan and Neely (56 mins), McDevitt for Campbell (60 mins), Campbell for Muldoon (74 mins), Muldoon for McDevitt (79 mins).
Tyrone: Conan McGarvey; Fiachra Nelis, Ben Hughes, Conor Devlin; Callum Daly, Joey Clarke (1-0), Caolan Donnelly (0-1); Cónán Devlin, Conor O’Neill; Conall Sheehy (0-2), Eoin McElholm (0-3, 1tp), Matthew Quinn (0-1); Noah Grimes (0-1), Ruairi McCullagh (0-9, 1tp, 1 ’45, 4fs), Liam Óg Mossey.
Subs: Shea McDermott (0-2, 1tp) for Grimes (54 mins), Darragh Donaghy for Sheehy (70 mins), Sean McCann for Mossey (74 mins).
Referee: Kevin Faloon (Armagh).
