Louth started strongly against the defending champions, Kildare in the first of the Cup Semi-Finals of this year’s Gerry Reilly U16 Football Tournament, played in Millbrook, Oldcastle on Saturday morning. They had four points on the scoreboard before Kildare registered their first from a free and followed up with another point. Louth had goal chances on at least two occasions and could have been much further ahead at the break.

H/T: Louth 0-8 Kildare 0-4

Louth dominated the second half and led 0-15 to 0-4 before Kildare’s first of the half. Kildare never gave up, but they had no answer for a Louth time that excelled on the day.

Scorers for Louth:Pauric Maguire, Rian McDonnell and Joe Lynch 0-3 each, Connall Kelly and Anthony Trainor 0-2each, Mark Smith, Calum Winters, Dylan Kirwan, Finn McEneany, Donnacha Reidy and Killian Duff 0-1 each

Scorers for Kildare: Cian Keogh 0-3,  Aodhan Bergin 0-2, Aidan Tobin and Eoghan Lyons 0-1 each

Meath started brightly in the second of the Cup Semi-Finals of this year’s Gerry Reilly Under-16 Football Tournament, played in Millbrook, Oldcastle, on Saturday afternoon. They opened the scoring with an early goal and quickly followed up with another point from a free. Cavan responded with their first score — a point — but from there, Meath largely dominated the play and went on to lead comfortably at half-time on a scoreline of 1-8 to 0-5.

A poor pass in the Cavan defence led to Meath’s second goal, which opened the scoring in the second half and extended their lead to 2-8 to 0-5. They quickly followed up with three unanswered points before Daire McCrystal struck back for Cavan with a goal, making it 2-12 to 1-5 at that stage.

After that, it was Meath who simply dominated the play, despite Cavan’s best efforts, adding more goals and points to pull well clear. In the end, Meath ran out convincing winners on a scoreline of 4-19 to 2-11.

They will now face Louth in the Cup Final on August 17th.

Meath: Cormac Fitzsimons (0-1,45), Tomas Clarke, Niall Rogan, Tom Howley,  Liam O’Donoghue, John Killoran, Conor McTigue, Cormac McKenna, Alex Keane, Niall Smyth, Darragh Wright (0-3), Thomas McKeever (1-0), Cormac Walsh (2-9,3f), Tomas Dillon (0-2), Mark Halpin (0-1)

Subs: William Gifford, Harry McGuirk, Con Brennan (0-3), Ryan O’Neill (1-0), Harris Moffatt

Cavan:  Kevin Heery, Jonah Curran, James McDevitt, Conor O’Reilly, CJ Fitzpatrick, David Liggan, Conor McCabe, Exceed Imade, Jake Brady (0-1),  Ben Stafford, Dara Eccleston (0-1), Oisín Keegan (0-1), Senan Smith (0-2,2pt), Louis Kerrigan, Jay Graham (0-5,2f)

Subs: Evan Lambe,  Patrick Nolan, Brian McDermot, Finn Keaney, Eoin Burns, Daire McCrystal (1-0), Callum Lynch, Oisín Smith, Fiachra McManus (0-1), Daniel Galligan, Ronan Tierney, John Cahill, Leon Gilmartin, Adam Smith, Jack Fallon