O’Reilly and Basquel strike to see Ballyboden through

Second-half goals from Darren O’Reilly and Ryan Basquel helped secure a 2-13 to 1-11 win for Ballyboden St Enda’s over St Brigid’s in Saturday’s Dublin SFC quarter-final at Parnell Park.

In a tense opening, the deadlock was broken through a fine score in the sixth minute from Philly Ryan and dual player Daire Plunkett doubled that advantage from John O’Loughlin’s pass two minutes later. However, St Enda’s gradually began to reel in their opponents with two excellent points apiece from Conal Keaney and Dublin panellist Declan O’Mahony ensuring Boden led 0-6 to 0-4 after 20 minutes.

Approaching the break, St Brigid’s were awarded a penalty after Paul O’Brien’s foul on Ryan and Shane Supple fired a left-footed shot beyond opposite number Darragh Walsh.

Trailing 1-6 to 0-7 at the interval, Ballyboden were handed the perfect start to the second-half as O’Reilly raced onto a pass from Michael Darragh Macauley before firing low past Supple.

St Brigid’s struggled from that juncture, failing to match the fluidity of their opening-half performance and their fate was effectively sealed as Basquel calmly rounded Supple for an easy finish in the 47th minute.

Boden’s reward is a semi-final clash with St Vincent’s, who had to withstand a late rally from St Sylvester’s when coming through 0-14 to 2-7.

Ciarán Dorney looked especially bright for Vincent’s in the opening-half with his three points from full-forward helping the Marino men to a 0-9 to 0-4 interval lead.

However, Sylvester’s were a different proposition upon the restart and, after Micheal McCarthy had struck the crossbar, Mark Brennan trimmed their arrears to two points in the 38th minute after a pass from Nigel Dunne.

St Vincent’s responded impeccably, accounting for the next three scores through a brace of Tomás Quinn points and a Gavin Burke effort as they restored their five point lead by the end of the third quarter.

Cavan senior Eugene Keating handed the Malahide club a lifeline as he jinked inside onto Gary Sweeney’s pass before firing a clinical shot into the corner of Michael Savage’s net in the 48th minute.

Two points from Dunne narrowed that deficit but Vincent’s showed sufficient nous to run down the clock in the final stages.

On Friday evening, Kevin McManamon struck 1-6 when helping St Jude’s deservedly account for a disjointed Parnells by 1-12 to 1-9 at a rain-sodden Parnell Park.

The Templeogue outfit enjoyed a 0-10 to 0-2 interval advantage and that lead was extended when McManamon netted a superb goal within two minutes of the restart.

Parnells hit back through points from Stephen Cluxton, Aaron Jameson and Rory Quinlivan but even a Mark Lynch goal in injury time arrived too late to mask a poor display by the Coolock men.

Later that night, county champions Ballymun Kickhams were indebted to seven points from Dean Rock as they beat Raheny 0-15 to 0-7.