Galway 3-11 Donegal 1-9
Donegal were hit by three first-half goals as their hopes of winning the inaugural All-Ireland Under-20 Championship title were crushed by Galway.
Although Donegal registered the first score of the game through Sara Thomas Galway’s goals were ultimately the difference between the teams.
Player of the Match Alisha O’Malley registered 2-8, including two early goals, while Ava Heneghan also found the net to help move Galway into a 3-4 to 0-4 half-time lead.
Already facing an uphill battle at that stage Caitlin Fletcher did get the only goal of the second half for Donegal, but they couldn’t eat into Galway’s advantage as they strolled to a 3-11 to 1-9 win.
After Thomas had put Donegal on the scoreboard first O’Malley’s point attempt caught Ellie McGarvey out for a goal inside two minutes.
Saoirse Murray and Aisling O’Neill traded points before O’Malley notched a point and a second goal, firing into the roof of the net – all within the opening 10 minutes.
O’Malley and Lucy Ward traded frees Galway led by seven points when captain Klara Banek sent over a point.
The third goal arrived on 21 minutes when Aoibhinn Madden set up Heneghan to fire into the bottom corner of the net.
After Donegal lost Alanna Boyle to a yellow card Ward kicked another free to extend Galway’s lead, but they missed a golden opportunity to surge further ahead when O’Malley failed from the penalty spot. Donegal goalkeeper McGarvey made a great save to deny O’Malley her hat-trick after Heneghan had been taken down.
Unbowed by that O’Malley added another point from a free early in the second half.
Donegal rallied and Sara Thomas’ shot was blocked before going over for a point and after another effort hit the bar Fletcher found the net.
Any hopes that Donegal may have had to staging a late rally were wrecked by O’Malley. She responded with two points from play and even after Chloe Costello and Fletcher kicked further scores there were three more from free for the outstanding O’Malley.
Katie Slattery hit a point for Galway close to the end and with the game already won Fletcher’s strike was much too late to have an impact on the outcome.
Scorers – Galway: A O’Malley 2-8 (5f), A Heneghan 1-0, S Murray, K Banek, K Slattery 0-1 each.
Donegal: C Fletcher 1-4, L Ward 0-2 (2f), S Thomas, A O’Neill and C Costello 0-1 each.
GALWAY: E Ryan; K Reynolds, L Seoighe, S Coleman; R Quinn, C McCabe, A Madden; K Slattery, S Murray; A Murray, S Banks, K Banek (capt.); I Murray, A O’Malley, A Heneghan. Subs: R Noone for Heneghan (41), S Melia for Banks (48), Z Ratjher for S Murray (53). A Nash for I Murray (57), G Farragher for Reynolds (60).
DONEGAL: E McGarvey; N Devlin, R Doherty, S Ryan; M Diver, T Rose Mahon (capt.), R McLaughlin; L Ward, K McMullin; M Ní Ghallchóir, M Brady, A Boyle; C Fletcher, A O’Neill, S Thomas. Subs: L McKeever for Diver (51), M McAteer, S Doherty and N Walsh for Brady, Boyle and Ryan (59).
Referee: Paul McCaughey (Westmeath).
Galway celebrate their victory over Donegal in the All-Ireland Under-20 Championship final
