{"id":103186,"date":"2025-10-04T19:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T19:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/103186\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T19:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T19:58:08","slug":"ballincollig-grab-three-second-half-goals-to-squeeze-past-dungourney-into-premier-ihc-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/103186\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballincollig grab three second-half goals to\u00a0squeeze past Dungourney into Premier IHC final"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Ballincollig 3-13 Dungourney 0-17\n <\/p>\n

Three second-half goals secured Ballincollig\u2019s passage to the Co-op Superstores PIHC final following their win over Dungourney at Caherlag on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The wind was a major factor and Dungourney opted to play against it in the first half, despite winning the toss. They went in 0-11 to 0-6 behind, which was manageable given how strong the gale was.<\/p>\n

They dominated on the point-scoring front with the conditions, but Ballincollig\u2019s ability to get goals at crucial times and keep a clean sheet was enough to see them through to the final, having lost the last two semis.<\/p>\n

Defensively in the second half, the likes of David O\u2019Sullivan and James Dwyer, returning from injury off the bench, led by example, with Tadhg O\u2019Connell also dropping deep to pick up crucial ball.<\/p>\n

It took Ballincollig just 40 seconds to take the lead, when Brian Keating scored from a free, with Jack Leahy equalising, from another free. Bryan Forbes put Dungourney in front, before David O\u2019Sullivan had the sides level, from another free.<\/p>\n

\" Jack Leahy, Dungourney, strikes against a strong wind in the first half. Picture: Larry Cummins<\/p>\n

Another Leahy free made it 0-3 to 0-2 to Dungourney with five minutes gone. John Ahern increased their lead before Ballincollig started to make the wind count.<\/p>\n

Cian O\u2019Driscoll pointed, followed by a Keating free after O’Driscoll was fouled to level. Another Keating free put the Village in front, with centre-back O\u2019Sullivan scoring from distance to increase their lead.<\/p>\n

Two Keating frees made it 0-7 to 0-4 in Ballincollig\u2019s favour after 22 minutes, before Leahy reduced the gap from another free.<\/p>\n

Sean O\u2019Neill and Theo Morgan pointed for the Village, with Leahy replying, again from a free, to make it 0-9 to 0-6.<\/p>\n

Two late scores from Darragh O\u2019Mahony and Keating put them five points up at half-time. The question was would it be enough, given Ballincollig had missed some placed balls, and Dungourney could pick scores from range with the wind.<\/p>\n

A huge moment came just 15 seconds into the second half. O\u2019Connell roared up the middle and fed Adam Wills, who burst through the Dungourney defence to find the back of the net.<\/p>\n

The East Cork side responded and really started to make the wind tell, as they hit eight points without reply. Their work-rate and intensity put ferocious pressure on Ballincollig when they tried to work the sliotar out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two Leahy frees and scores from Niall Motherway reduced the deficit \u2013 1-11 to 0-10. Leahy was about to take another free when the referee told him he had to leave the pitch for blood reasons. But up stepped Ahern to convert the placed ball and he added another to put only two between them.<\/p>\n

Further scores from the industrious Shane Hegarty and Mike Leahy had the sides level after 51 minutes, before Wills got Ballincollig\u2019s first point of the second half. A lift after they had struggled for the previous 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

Cillian O\u2019Callaghan replied to level it before team captain Cian Dorgan, just on as a sub due to an injury that prevented him starting, got the crucial goal for Ballincollig, a blow Dungourney never recovered from.<\/p>\n

With a minute of normal time left Darragh O\u2019Mahony got their third after a fine team move to put the result beyond doubt, with a late Se\u00e1n O’Neill point capping off a very strong closing spell for the Village.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The PIHC decider is fixed for SuperValu P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh on Sunday, October 19, as a curtain-raiser to the Premier Senior final.<\/p>\n

\" Cillian O\u2019Callaghan, Dungourney, takes on Ballincollig defender Brian Dore. Picture: Larry Cummins<\/p>\n

\n Scorers for Ballincollig: B Keating 0-5 f, D O\u2019Mahony, A Wills 1-1 each, C Dorgan 1-0, S O\u2019Neill, D O\u2019Sullivan (0-1 f) 0-2 each, C O\u2019Driscoll, T Morgan 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

\n Dungourney: J Leahy 0-7 (0-6 f), J Ahern (0-2 f) 0-3, N Motherway 0-2, B Forbes, M Leahy, S Hegarty, C O\u2019Callaghan, R Denny 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

\n BALLINCOLLIG: J Linehan; F Denny, J Murray, B Dore; B Coleman, D O\u2019Sullivan, D O\u2019Leary; M Oldham, T Morgan; S O\u2019Neill, T O\u2019Connell, D O\u2019Mahony; A Wills, C O\u2019Driscoll, B Keating. <\/p>\n

\n Subs: J Dwyer for J Murray (h-t), C Dorgan (c) for M Oldham (46), P Kelly for D O\u2019Mahony (60), P Morris for A Wills (61).<\/p>\n

\n DUNGOURNEY: P Flynn; J McCarthy, M Leahy, D Healy; R Harney, J Griffin, M McGrath; S Hegarty, C Murphy; N McGrath, J Leahy, B Forbes; N Motherway, J Ahern, C O\u2019Callaghan.<\/p>\n

\n Subs: K Cody for C Murphy (h-t), R Denny for N McGrath (46 inj).<\/p>\n

\n

Referee: Kevin O\u2019Sullivan (Valley Rovers).\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ballincollig 3-13 Dungourney 0-17 Three second-half goals secured Ballincollig\u2019s passage to the Co-op Superstores PIHC final following their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[24,18,19,17,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-103186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cork-gaa","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}