Presentation College Headford 4.9
Salerno, Galway City 2.6
Congratulations to the Senior Girls Gaelic Football team who won the U17 Sweeney Oil Galway PPS Cup in Pearse Stadium on the 19th of April. It was a well-deserved victory as fitness, spirit and determination won out in the end. With PCH playing against the breeze in the first half, Salerno began the scoring with a point, but PCH rattled the back of the net quickly after that and from there kept the lead with scores from Rachel Barrett, Ellie Garret, Rachel O’Neill and Yasmin Donnelly. Sarah Heenan made a wonderful save in the first half, before facing a penalty, which she saved only for it to unfortunately rebound into the hands of a Salerno player. At half time PCH was up by a point.
In the second half, with the breeze behind them PCH showed their true talents and skills. The midfield combination of Riona Quinn and Amy Halligan worked superbly splitting the Salerno side. The forwards played a wonderful game of running football, always with one of the half forward line of Ellie Garrett, Karen Miland and Yasmin Donnelly creating space and freeing themselves up for a pass. Victoria Lee deservedly awarded player of the match as she acted as a third midfielder collecting the ball from the quick paced half back line of Tara Lee, Kelsey Forde (captain) and Rachel Moffatt. In one of her darting runs forward she scored an impressive long range point.
Two changes were made in the second half with Shauna McDonagh going into the full forward line and Saoirse Cunningham into the half back line. Both players were excellent; Shauna quickly won a free that was converted and added a goal to the scoreline, while Saoirse made some valuable interceptions in the half back line. While all players were outstanding on the day, victory would not have been possible if it wasn’t for the full back line of Sinead Lee, Amy Reilly and Aisling Quinn. As PCH was reduced to 14 players with 8 minutes to go, the full back line really were outstanding as Amy Reilly fielded a wonderful ball before laying it off to the midfielders, quickly stopping that attack. Aisling Quinn covered serious ground and positioned herself perfectly to intercept and prevent any late attacks, while Sinead Lee blocked the ball superbly.
Finally the whole panel of 30 girls contributed to the success of the team on Thursday. Unfortunately, not everyone could get a run out but each of them trained hard throughout the year with both the school and their clubs, and deserved their victory. Their positive attitude paid off. Well done to all the team.
Sarah Heenan, Sinead Lee, Amy Reilly, Aisling Quinn, Rachel Moffatt,
Kelsey Forde (C), Tara Lee, Amy Halligan, Riona Quinn, Karen Miland, Yasmin Donnelly, Ellie Garrett, Rachel Barrett, Victoria Lee, Rachel O’Neill, Saoirse Cunningham, Shauna McDonagh, Jill Carolan, Niamh Faulkner, Megan Reilly, Shauna Lydon, Chloe Mullin, Chloe Grimes, Ciara Foley, Ali Mullin, Laura Lee, Leah Flynn, Michaela Kavanagh, Rachel Reilly, Elaine Corbett.
