UCC 7-18
DCU 0-10
by Eoghan Cormican
At the Mardyke
The scoreline says it all. A tale of two teams at either end of the of the Fitzgibbon spectrum.
On a bitterly cold night at the Mardyke, neither side learned a whole pile from this mismatch encounter which in truth, was of no benefit to anyone.
Where DCU go from here is anyone’s guess. They can allow their season to be smothered under ache of Wednesday’s horrible experience and exit tamely from the Fitzgibbon Cup, or they can regroup and tackle a GMIT side that they are more than capable of toppling.
They will certainly attempt the latter, but it will be exceedingly tough after suffering this twenty nine point drubbing.
UCC, led by the outstanding William Egan, Pauric Mahony and Tipperary’s Shane Burke, held a 1-12 to 0-5 interval advantage and the home side were unrelenting in the second half as the goals poured in from all angles.
Stephen Moylan notched UCC’s second major in the 37th minute, after Willie Griffin offloaded to the full forward, and therein the UCC forwards had an unobstructed view of Bill McCormack’s goal as the DCU defence was torn asunder by the speed, power and precision of the attackers.
Indeed, was it not for McCormack – one of DCU’s more impressive performers on the evening – UCC’s final goal tally would have been far greater.
That said, DCU opened brightly with Emmet Kent firing over an early free and though UCC hit three points in quick succession, Kent converted a second placed ball effort to leave only the minimum between the sides by the close of the first quarter.
However, UCC subsequently cut lose posting an unanswered 1-7 in an ultra-productive ten minute period to effectively end the game as a contest. Pauric Mahony raised the first green flag of proceedings when lifting the net with a powerful strike.
Further minors from the stick of Emmet Kent (free) and the hardworking Wes O’Brien left DCU trailing by ten at the interval, but in truth they were chasing a lost cause from a long way out.
Willie Griffin turned provider for UCC’s third major, latching onto a probing Dean Brosnan delivery, before Waterford senior Pauric Mahony whipped to the net after John Whelan blocked Griffin’s initial effort.
Similar strikes from Dean Brosnan and Griffin ensued and all of a sudden DCU were twenty five points in arrears.
Not surprisingly, the tempo decreased dramatically in the closing stages with the sides exchanging efforts before UCC struck for their seventh goal on 55 minutes when Mahony drove home, taking his personal return to 3-3.
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