Irvinestown 3-08 Derrygonnelly 0-11

Goals were the difference as Irvinestown’s upcoming minor stars collected a fourth championship in a row and completed the double again at St Joseph’s Park on Saturday.

They defeated Derrygonnelly in the league final at Brewster Park at the end of September and they would hit three goals again against the Harps in an entertaining affair.

Oisin Swift, Barry Goodwin and substitute Jay Largo Elis all found the net in a well-contested game as Irvinestown also finished with 14 men.

Rory Smyth ran through from midfield to open the scoring in Ederney, giving Derrygonnelly the lead in the opening moment. Just seconds later, they doubled the advantage with Niall McKenna tapping over a close-range free.

Irvinestown responded well, and in the fourth minute, they took the lead as a sweeping move saw Oisin Swift break through from the right-hand side and drive a low shot across goal in the bottom left corner of the net.

Conall Rasdale converted another free to make it 1-00 to 0-03.

On ten minutes, a ball kicked into the full-forward line was gathered by Odhran McGovern who turned and swung an effort over the bar.

McGovern then kicked another score from range and midfielder Mattie McDermott pinged in an outside-of-the-boot pass to Goodwin who jinked onto his right foot and lofted a shot over the bar from an angle.

McKenna placed over another kick from a tight angle and added from a free but the St Molaises hit their second goal on 20 minutes.

A ball across was caught by Goodwin who cut back across goalkeeper Daire Keown and fired into the roof of the net, 2-03 to 0-05.

McGovern and Rasdale traded frees with Goodwin going close to a third goal but his shot bobbled off the turf and was saved by Keown.

The half concluded with a McGovern point and a Goodwin free to leave the halftime score at 2-06 to 0-06.

Irvinestown didn’t register a score for the first 20 minutes in the second half as the Harps slowly prodded their way closer on the scoreboard.

Derrygonnelly applied heavy pressure, closing the gap to three points as McKenna’s free was followed by points via Rasdale and Mark Gallagher.

Irvinestown went down to 14 men when McGovern was shown a second yellow card, with 10 minutes left, but a minute later they eventually got off the mark as Caelan McGoldrick forayed forward to send his shot between the posts.

Smyth quickly responded with a kick off the left boot to bring the deficit back down to three, 2-07 to 0-10.

Goodwin and McKenna both landed free kicks but Irvinestown would seal their win with two minutes of normal time to go as a break forward led to substitute Jay Largo Elis finding himself one-on-one and he shot low into the net to wrap up proceedings and confirm Irvinestown’s historic achievement at underage level.