Caltra boys finish in blaze of glory to thwart St Brendan’s

Caltra 3-13

St. Brendan’s  3-12

(AET)

Tomás Keating at Tuam Stadium

WHAT a year it’s been for the Caltra club. Their minors won the North Board A title, their Junior B’s also took divisional honours and, now, their U20s are North Board B champions as well after they defeated St. Brendan’s in an enthralling final at Tuam Stadium on Saturday.

Akin to the A final that preceded it, extra time was needed to determine a victor and what a topsy-turvy 20 minutes it was. Caltra had done extremely well to force extra time because they hit five points without reply in the final 16 minutes of normal time.

Four of these points came from Alan Naughton, who had a magnificent second half, despite missing a penalty in the first. Naughton single-handedly dragged Caltra back into the game as they trailed 1-7 to 1-2 at the interval. Deep into injury-time, in the 65th minute, Naughton’s sideline ball found Owen Naughton, who thumped over a huge point from distance to level it.

In extra time, it looked like the spoils were heading to Ballygar as St. Brendan’s found the net either side of the break. In the 69th minute, Caltra’s midfielder Jack Barrett looked to have made a costly mistake as his wayward pass was stolen by James Mulrooney and he set up Karl Henry, whose calm finish found the left bottom corner.

Not long after the restart, substitute Sam O’Sullivan, who was just on the pitch, got on the end of a Healy high ball and punched the ball home. Straight from Caltra’s kickout, Healy pointed to put St. Brendan’s up 3-11 to 1-13 with nine minutes left.

Caltra looked dead and buried, but they dug deep and showed impressive character as they struck back-to-back goals courtesy of Naughton and Shaun Keane to completely turn the tide in their favour as they now led 3-13 to 3-12 with two minutes to play.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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