Stacks will meet St Kierans in repeat of last year's Kerry County U21 final
Austin Stacks thanks to an explosive opening half proved far too strong for a gutsy East Kerry side in the semi-final of the County U21 Football Championship with a 2-21 to 0-19 victory in Paddy Burke Memorial Park Milltown.
Stacks who are going for back to back County U21 titles laid down a marker from the throw in when Ben Murphy fetched the ball and raced right through the heart of the East Kerry defence where he had to be fouled and Paddy Lane who only passed a fitness test just before throw in converted the free.
Two minutes later Jack Murphy raced forward and played Ryan O'Driscoll through and he jinked his way past two defenders to score a superb goal. Cian Gammell replied for East Kerry but it was all Stacks pressure with the wind to their backs for the rest of the half. O'Driscoll was denied by a post for a second goal, before he added another point and with Donnacha Sayers, Sean Óg Brosnan and a Paddy Lane two pointer, Stacks led 1-6 to 0-3 at the end of the opening quarter with Mark O'Shea and Stephen Palmer (two of East Kerry's top performers) replying for East Kerry.
By half time Stacks with the Murphy brothers, Luke Casey and Daniel Kirby driving them forward and two pointers from Ronan Carroll and Paddy Lane saw Stacks retire 1-13 to 0-7 in front at the interval.
East Kerry needed a quick start to the second half but instead two Paddy Lane points and one from Daniel Kirby and Ronan Carroll saw Stacks stretch 13 points clear and that was game over.
Credit East Kerry with Paul O'Shea with a two pointer and five second half Stephen Palmer points along with accurate James Horgan free taking saw they gap at down to just eight. But Ben Murphy killed off East Kerry's unlikely comeback when Gavin Casey set up Ben Murphy so drilled the ball to the net and Stacks cruised to an eight point win.
They will meet St Kieran's in a repeat of last year's County final after they held off a late Glenflesk rally to book their place in the Kerry U21 final after a 2-22 to 4-13 win in Fossa. Killian Dennehy was the star of the show scoring 1-10 while as Maurice Lane scores their other goal. Glenflesk can thank Callum Cronin who scored 2-1 with John Kelliher and Dylan Roche (penalty) other Glenflesk goal scorers.
St Kierans recovered from going 0-5 to 0-0 down to Glenflesk after 10 minutes to lead by 0-7 to 0-6 at half-time. Killian Dennehy with three points as Glenflesk have braces from Dylan Roche, Jamie Moynihan and John Kelliher. Kierans were 1-14 to 0-6 up after 43 mins before Callum Cronin got Glenflesk first goal. Cronin got his second in 49th min which made it 1-16 to 2-9.
When Dennehy got Kierans 2nd goal in 52nd minute to make it 2-16 to 2-10, it felt like game over but John Kelliher got Glenflesk's third goal in 55th min to make it 2-18 to 3-10, but dissent proved costly for the East Kerry club. Luke Crowley and Cian Lynch kicked two pointers as Dylan Roche scored 4th goal from a penalty in 60+2 as Glenflesk but a Kieran Dennehy free ensured Kierans got through but only just.
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