Our under-18 girls took home silverware in an entertaining final at Pairc Na Gael last night. Having finished 3rd in a tough group where the top 2 teams went on to win their way through to the ‘A’ semi-final, the girls continued to train hard and qualified for last night’s B final after a comprehensive win over Newtown Blues in the semi-final last week.

Their opponents, St Fechins were determined to reverse their defeat to our girls in the group stages and they took advantage of a strong breeze to lead by 2 points early on. Lauren Forrester who was a real handful throughout fired back a point before the Fechins added another point to lead by two.

Playing against the strong wind the Gers were under huge pressure. Keelan Bewley and Tara O’Connor in midfield put in a huge amount of hard work to help stem the tide while Rachel Cunniffe covered serious ground dropping back to defend and carrying the ball up the pitch and was a constant outlet. Half-backs, Dearbhla McKenna, Emmy Jeytoo and Ruby Nolan put in a great defensive performance and pushed forward to great effect Annie Ojo made some vital interceptions and clearances at cornerback while Laura Fanning was steady as a rock in goal.

Karina Corcoran nailed two very difficult and vital frees into the wind to reduce the deficit and Alex Bewley split the posts with a superb score from distance to bring us level at halftime.

Straight from the throw-in the Gers showed they were determined to take advantage of the wind with Tara O’Connor tearing through the heart of the Fechins' defence to score a point and set up Sophie McArdle for a great point from the right wing. Tara then broke through again and finished to the bottom corner of the net to open up a five-point gap.

The Fechins hit back with a point before Clodagh Corcoran recorded her 1st score of the night. Clodagh was on fire in the 2nd half, scoring four points, one of which was free from a very acute angle that David Clifford would have been proud of!

The Fechins refused to lie down and hit back with a goal of their own and made the Geraldines fight to retain their advantage right to the end. The impressive Alex Bewley added another point before Tara finished the scoring with another point to leave the full-time score 1-12 to 1-5 to the Gers.

Rebecca Baldwin and Grace Rodgers came on as subs and made important contributions while Ava Connor marshalled the defence and led by example with a towering performance at full-back while Erin Finnegan was always at hand to repel Fechins counter-attacks.

Keelan Bewley who constantly broke up Fechins attacks and was constantly involved in the action was awarded player of the match by Louth LGFA.

Co-Captains Ava and Karina raised the cup to give a great finish to their underage career in the Geraldines.

Massive thanks to our magnificent support on the night which included parents, boys and girls juvenile players and senior ladies players as well as stalwart Geraldines supporters.

Thank you to our sponsors Sports Direct Ireland.

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