Westport girls win inaugural Eric O'Reilly Memorial Cup

WESTPORT United's Under 12 girls A team will be honoured at The Connaught Telegraph Young Sports Star Awards where they will be presented with the Eric O'Reilly Memorial Cup in honour of one of Mayo's great fooball servants who died tragically last year.

The Westport girls won their first national title, the FAI Women's Under 12 Shield, which is remarkable considering they only started playing soccer at the beginning of 2015.

Set up by committed coaches and parents and assisted by the committee of Westport United, who were delighted to have girls teams up and running again, the girls are a hugely talented bunch who train hard and are a delight to work with.

They won the Mayo Under 12 Division One League in 2015 and the Under 12 Premier League in 2016.

They then won the FAI Under 12 Mayo blitz and the Connaught blitz to qualify for the FAI Women's Under 12 national competition, which was held at the AUL complex in Dublin.

The girls played five games over the course of the day to become National Shield champions.

United played three games in the initial round of this tough competition, the goals in those games coming from Laura Moran and Abi Conway.

The team then qualified for the Shield semi-final, which they won, and faced Parkvilla from Navan in the final.

The teams couldn't be separated after a 0-0 draw and it went to a penalties. Westport's goalscorers in the shootout were Laura Moran, Sorcha McCarney and Leila O'Malley, while goalkeeper Eimear Geraghty saved a penalty and Parkvilla missed two as Westport went on to record a famous victory.

The full team was Eimear Geraghty, Sorcha McCarney, Sophie Scahill, Laura Masterson, Ella McHale, Laura Moran, Leila O'Malley, Cliodhna Casey, Grace McNally, Ashling Duffy, Aoife Staunton, Abi Conway, Erin Nash, Kaitlin Coughlan, Katie O'Grady and Aenea Breslin.

The Eric O'Reilly Memorial Award is presented for the first time this year in memory of the Iorras Aontaithe stalwart who not only enjoyed a fantastic playing career with his club, but was the epitome of a person fully dedicated to the cause of promoting football in his community.

He worked tirelessly with young footballers in Erris and Mayo, so it's fitting that each year the Eric O'Reilly Memorial Award will be presented to an underage football team in Mayo that has achieved something special on the field of play.