A dramatic opening night in the Hudson Bay hotel Roscommon senior championship as eight teams got their campaign underway.
Oran 1-13 (16) Roscommon Gaels 2-8 (14)
Oran took both points in this opening group A encounter but to be fair, Roscommon Gaels made it very difficult.
Oran were impressive from the throw-in. Ciaran Lawless 23rd minute goal but points from Charlie Carthy (0-1 1f) and Shane Walsh (0-3 2f) put Oran 1-5 to 0-2 ahead.
Roscommon Gaels found the net three minutes later as they trailed 1-6 to 1-3 at half-time.
Three second-half Charlie Carthy free’s and a point each from Shane and Colin Walsh seemed to have sealed the victory.
However Roscommon Gaels didn’t read the script and found their second goal a minute into injury time.
Carthy was the man for Oran, his late free sealing the 1-13 to 2-8 win.
Clan na nGael 2-14 (20) St Faithleachs 0-13
Clann didn’t have it all their own in this one. The scoreboard only telling the third quarter story of the game.
In fact the sides were level on 10 occasions with Faithleachs leading eight points to seven at half-time.
A two goal blitz from Cathal Shine and Josh Lennon on 52 minutes swung the game to Clann. Clann then led 2-12 to 0-12.
Clann added two further points to seal victory, but showed the turn of class early doors.
Boyle 3-13 (22) Western Gaels 1-12 (15)
Three first half goals was the story of this one! Three of those goals were chalked onto the Boyle scoreboard.
Two goals from Daire Cregg and one from Donie Smith rattled Western Gaels as they trailed 3-2 to 0-2 after 20 minutes.
Boyle led 3-4 to 0-3 at half-time. Western Gaels responded with a second-half goal but they never threatened a real comeback as Boyle won out by seven points.
Padraig Pearses 1-21(24) Tulsk 0-8
Champions Padraig Pearses made a flying start to group C albeit allowing for Tulsk to move in-front.
Pearses trailed two points to no score after five minutes. That was the best it got for Tulsk.
Points from Paul Carey (0-4 3f), Conor Daly, Eoin Colleran (0-4 3f) and Jack Tumulty saw Pearses led 10 points to four at half-time.
There was no real way back for Tulsk, Tom Butler’s 46th minute goal put 12 points between the sides. 1-16 to 0-7.
Tulsk added one further score with Pearse firing an early shot to win out by 16 points.
