Gutsy St Mark’s tops in U15 showpiece

ST MARK’S Under 15 girls put in a gutsy performance to beat Shankill to the Dublin Ladies Gaelic Football Division Six Championship title with a 4-8 to 2-6 win at McGee Park on Saturday, November 25.

Despite conceding the first score, the Tallaght club soon drew level with a point from Chloe White and edged ahead with a point from Abigail Byrne shortly thereafter.

Whilst it was an epic battle and tight at times St Marks never trailed from that point on and worked hard to maintain the gap.

The end of the first half saw a blitz of pressure from Shankill with heroic efforts from Ava Doran in the St Marks goal, ably supported by valiant efforts of full backs Shonagh McCarthy, Kayla Macken and Erin Carey.

By the interval, Mark’s led by a goal and a point thanks to the sterling work of Ava Sherwood (2-0) who combined well with Leah Byrne, Niamh Boyle, Yasmin Purcell, Abbey McGuiness and Ashling Martin across the forwards.

On the restart, while they had mild success in the opening half an hour, Aoife Doran’s outfit slightly changed tack with Jodi Costello, Maria Berezhnaya, Debbie Adesolye and Holly Doyle making line-breaking runs from deep.

This change ultimately afforded Naomi Hatch (0-1), Lucia Dare and Eorann Killeen time on the ball, and allowed Zara Quirke to exploit the extra space in attack. Quirke, who is captain of the Tallaght side, made an enormous contribution from midfield in how she hassled in defence while also popping five points between the posts.

Her midfield partner Abigail Byrne was also in prolific form, netting twice after going on mazy runs from the centre of the park.

Grace Green provided a fresh pair of legs on 45 minutes and made them count with some fantastic runs to help get the club across the line.

After losing the decider last year, St Marks were determined not to relive that heartbreak and a brave team effort ensured a 4-8 to 2-6 victory on the day.