GOWNA’S hunt for a hat-trick of Cavan senior football titles is on thin ice after they suffered a shock defeat (0-17 to 3-9) to Ballyhaise.
Ballyhaise, 2023 IFC winners, stormed into a 3-3 to 0-5 lead with goals from Martin Conaty (5), David Brady (13) and Micheál Brady (18).
Gowna went onto trail by 0-8 to 3-5 at the interval but despite conceding some silky points to the likes of Oisin Pierson, Conor Casey and Cian Madden on the restart, Ballyhaise saw it out.
Two second-half goals inside 50 seconds saw table-toppers Crosserlough follow up their demolition of Lavey with a facile 2-18 to 0-6 win over Laragh United.
The 2020 title winners led from gun to tape with county ace Dara McVeety at the forefront of a lot of the ‘lough’s good work as they sauntered to a 0-10 to 0-3 interval lead.
The runaway leaders all but sealed the deal in the 36th minute when Peter Smith scored his third goal in the last two games with a fantastic finish to leave Laragh trailing by 0-4 to 1-12.
Less than 49 seconds later Matthew Costello had the Laragh net billowing once more.
Elsewhere, in arguably one of the more entertaining SFC games over the weekend, an opportunist goal by strapping midfielder David Wright in the 24th minute proved pivotal in shaping Castlerahan’s victory (1-14 to 0-12) in their derby duel with Lavey.
Hunger was the name of the game with both sides determined to chisel out their first points of the season.
Ultimately, the only goal of the game proved pivotal to Castlerahan in embellishing their 1-6 to 0-4 cushioned lead at half-time.
It was even tighter at Kingspan Breffni where Ramor United’s bitty form in this year’s championship continued after they were held to a 1-6 to 0-9 draw by the competition’s surprise packets Mullahoran.
In what was a slow-burner of a contest, the heavily backed Virginia town-based crew had to retrieve a 0-4 to 0-8 deficit at half-time with a Conor Nulty goal in the 50th minute just the springboard his side needed to nab the lead for the first time in the match.
Predictably, the aforementioned O’Reilly came good, though, converting a free seven minutes from time to keep Mullahoran a deserved, if surprise, share of the spoils.
Meanwhile, a Seanie Johnston-managed Cavan Gaels’ troupe never trailed as they collected their first points of the season with a hard-won 1-10 to 0-10 victory over near-neighbours Ballinagh.
In a no-nonsense, hard-hitting affair, the county town side led for all but 80 seconds in the very early stages of the match but it was Luke Molloy’s well-taken goal (12) which gave the match favourites a valuable leg-up.
Molloy’s major catapulted the would-be winners into a 1-3 to 0-1 lead and, in truth, the blues never looked back thereafter, keeping their opponents safely at arms’ length despite the promptings of seasoned campaigner Niall McDermott.
Kingscourt had earlier kicked off the second round games on Friday last by easing past (2-12 to 1-11) the challenge of a fitful Killygarry crew.
The first-named led by 1-6 to 1-4 at the interval thanks, in part, to Sean Burke’s excellent goal (14) but with Ben Mooney and Darragh Lovett in fine form, Killygarry tested their opponents to the full but Odhrán Cunningham’s major (39) helped keep Killygarry at bay ‘till the death.
Round two
Laragh 0-6 Crosserlough 2-18
Kingscourt 2-12 Killygarry 1-11
Ballinagh 0-10 Cavan Gaels 1-10
Mullahoran 0-9 Ramor 1-6
Castlerahan 1-14 Lavey 0-12
Gowna 0-17 Ballyhaise 3-9
Round three
Thursday, August 29
Castlerahan v Ballyhaise (Kingspan Breffni, 8pm)
Saturday, August 31
Killygarry v Ramor United (Lavey, 6.30pm)
Crosserlough v Ballinagh (Lacken, 6.30pm)
Gowna v Cavan Gaels (Kingspan Breffni, 6.45pm)
Sunday, September 1
Mullahoran v Kingscourt (Ramor, 2pm)
Laragh Lavey (Kingspan Breffni, 5pm)
