Round Towers, Lusk secure SFC2 final victory

DUBLIN SFC 2 FINAL

ROUND TOWERS, LUSK 3-21 WHITEHALL COLMCILLE 3-10

The rise and rise of Round Towers, Lusk continued at Parnell Park on Sunday afternoon in Parnell Park when they added the Dublin SFC2 title to their roll of honour.

Last year's Dublin intermediate champions, who secured the DublinJFC 'A' title as recently as 2015, gave a brilliant display in deservedly defeating Whitehall Colmcille.

The sides had already met in both AFL and SFC2 action, as they were in the same group, and the Lusk men won all three encounters but none as emphatically as Sunday's decider in Donnycarney.

Lusk started with intent in this action-packed encounter and crucially hit six unanswered points inside the opening ten minutes.

The role of Adam Caul gave Towers and early foothold in the game with points also from the influential Cormac Howley and unerring freetaker Liam Bohan saw the Lusk men bolt from the blocks.

During that spell of dominance Lusk keeper Rory O'Brien denied Enda O'Donnell from close range after he was picked out on the move by a brilliant Cormac Costello pass off his left foot.

Twenty-four minutes into the half Costello fetched a ball and turned on goal before finishing to the net to make it 0-8 to 1-4 but Towers responded immediately when Howley raced through before placing Kyle Connell who finished clincially to the Colmcille net.

Enda O'Donnell had another sighting on goal before the interval but heroic Towers full-back Robert Magee cleared off the line and his side led 1-9 to 1-6 at half-time.

A point from Liam Bohan and goal from Luke White, with Howley at the pivot of the move, pushed Lusk 2-10 to 1-6 clear.

However, an Eoghan O'Donnell goal, having won possession from a long delivery, kept Whitehall in contact.

In the 38th minute Kyle Connell and Luke White combined for Towers for the maurading Darragh Kelly to goal and Towers were now on the road to victory, both teams regardless of the eventual result progressing to SFC1 for 2020.

Both keepers were kept active at times before the finish with Whitehall's Seán Motherway and Lusk's Rory O'Brien showing good reflexes to deny their opponents goals.

But Towers held the upperhand and counter-attacked with great purpose and positiity to keep clipping over scores with Howley kicking two measured scores.

Before the finish Aaron Duffy was rewarded for a strong display by making his way up from corner-back to kick a stylish point with the outside of his right boot.

Late on Keith Campbell scored Whitehall's third goal but it was too little, too late.

SCORERS – Round Towers, Lusk: L Bohan 0-8 (0-4f), L White 1-2, C Howley 0-4 (0-2f), K Connell 1-1, J Hanratty 0-3, D Kelly 1-0, A Caul 0-2, A Duffy 0-1. Whitehall Colmcille: C Costello 1-8 (0-7f, 0-1 '45'), Eoghan O’Donnell 1-1, K Campbell 1-0, N O’Connor 0-1.

ROUND TOWERS, LUSK: R O’Brien; L Caul, R Magee, A Duffy; N White, A Caul, J Hussey; S Harford, D Kelly; C Tonge, L Bohan, K Connell; J Hanratty, C Howley, C Neville. Subs: L White for Neville (ht), C Murphy for N White (59), G Clare for Magee (60), C Healy for Kelly (63).

WHITEHALL COLMCILLE: S Motherway; D Ryan, S O’Sullivan, D O’Connell, S Moran, L McCarthy, R Kerins; H McInerney, N O’Donnell; L Gannon, Eoghan O’Donnell, T O’Sullivan; C Costello, J Bridgeman, Enda O’Donnell. Subs: N O’Connor for Ryan (37), K Campbell for Enda O’Donnell (37), D Redmond for McCarthy (43), A O’Brien for Kerins (45), J O’Brien for S O’Sullivan (48).

REF: C Reilly (Na Fianna).