Heartbreak for Mayo in Under 16 All-Ireland A final
Cavan 3-11
Mayo 2-5
MAYO’S dream of winning the All-Ireland Under 16 A championship title was in tatters at the end of the opening quarter of their final meeting with Cavan in Ballinasloe today (Saturday). By that early stage they found themselves trailing by 12 points, 2-6 to 0-0, and no one in the big crowd could see anything by a massive Cavan victory.
But to their amazing credit, despite getting battered in the opening 15 minutes, they recovered to make a real game of it where they outscored their opponents for the final three-quarters of the game.
The game could not have started any better for Cavan, who had the ball in the Mayo net in the first minute through Katie McGahern after Emilia Mussi charged through and saw her shot rebound off the post.
Mayo conceded 2-4 in the next five minutes from four different scorers, with Cavan centre-forward Abby Reilly putting her side 10 points up when she finished to the net after a clever hand-pass from McGahern.
Emma Stagg eventually opened the scoring for Mayo with a 16th minute free. However, Mayo were knocked back again when McGahern teed up Reilly to fire a shot in the Mayo net, putting the Ulster champions fourteen points up.
With a relentless attacking energy and athleticism, Cavan kept attacking down the middle at the heart of the Mayo defence, forcing two saves from Mayo goalkeeper Kayla Hughes.
But the Mayo girls continued to battle away and after points from Katie Hughes and Lily Hession (a free), a brilliant long delivery into full-forward Emma Stagg saw her make the most of her opportunity by hitting an unstoppable shot to the roof of the net. And Mayo rounded off a great end to the half with a delightful point from Aoibhinn McNamara, to trail by nine at the break, 3-7 to 1-4.
On the resumption, Cavan missed the chance to go further ahead when Kayla Hughes made a superb double-save from a Reilly penalty in the 36th minute. However, the Ulster side did follow up with three unanswered scores to go 12 in front again. But Mayo still refused to throw in the towel and erased these three points with another superb goal from Stagg.
Yet, try as they did, they failed to cut the deficit further and it was Cavan who held on for a deserved win.
Cavan: F. Higgins, K. McSeain, A. Crowe, H. Forde Peat, K. Comaskey, C. Crowe (0-1), G. McCabe, E. Mussi (0-1), E. Gannon, B. Quaile, A. Reilly (2-3), S. McAvinney (0-2), N. McCaffrey (0-3), M. Smith, K. McGahern (1-0).
Subs used: J. Hetherton (0-1), C. Brennan, S. Farrelly, K. O’Reilly, L. Matthews.
Mayo: Kayla Hughes, C. Dowling, I. Basquille, C. Cullen, A. Doherty, E. Higgins, S. Tiernan, S. Dempsey, L. Hession (0-1), A. McNamara (0-1), L. McHale, S. McGuinness, K. Byrne, E. Stagg (2-1), Katie Hughes (0-1).
Subs used: E. Duffy (0-1), G. Bailey, D. Guilfoyle, A. Ferguson, A. Lynn.
Referee: A. Marren (Monaghan).