Looking for breathing room? Sunday’s Gaelic Athletic Association tripleheader at Cardinal Dougherty High School clearly was NOT the place to be.

After an easy Junior C football win by Eire Og in the opener, the card featured a 3-8 to 1-10 Shamrocks win over the Washington DC Gaels in a hurling match that almost came down to the wire, and a 3-8 to 2-10 Young Ireland edging of Kevin Barrys in an Intermediate football game that brought excitement even after the finish. All three games were the opening qualifiers for berths in the Philadelphia Division finals in late August.

An apparent draw to both teams when the final whistle blew, the Intermediate contest went to Young Ireland by a scant point on the referee’s official scoreline after a well-played, highly intense game in which the two teams were never more than two points apart.

An early goal on a well-struck penalty from Patsy Quinn put the Barrys on top 1-1 to 0-1, but Young Ireland trimmed the gap with goals from Pairic O’Mairtin and Jude Hans. In the second half, a goal by Damien Chivers gave the Barrys a boost but key misses would cost the squad the opportunity to put the game away.

Young Ireland rode strong offensive performances by Patrick Halligan (2-2), Hans (1-1) and O’Mairtin (0-3) to the victory. Eddie Trainor and Marty Gallagher excelled on defense for the Barrys, who also got strong support from Danny Clarke.

In the hurling qualifier, the Shamrocks had seen a five point lead evaporate to a singleton with five minutes to play, when Frank O’Meara cut across in front of the Gaels’ net, and flipped the sliotar past Washington keeper Martin Towig to give the Shamrocks a somewhat more comfortable four-point lead that would hold up at the finish.

The Shamrocks got points by Brian O’Keefe, Jer Dillon and Colum Griffin and a Brendan Ryan goal on their way to an early 1-3 to 0-1 lead. But the Gaels got a goal and a point from Cahal McAuley and strong keeping from an often-tested Towig en route to trimming the lead to 1-5 to 1-3 at the break.

Although the Shamrocks upped the lead to five when John O’Donovan whacked a strong pass from O’Keefe past Towig, the visitors countered with points from Justin Brady, Brian Dolphin, Niall Dempsey and Dolphin again to cut the edge to one, setting the stage for O’Meara.

O’Donovan finished with a goal and a point for the Shamrocks, who complemented the goals by Ryan and O’Meara with a three-point effort by Dillon and strong defense by Johnny Flynn. McAuley had a goal and two points and Brady added four points for the Gaels.

In the opening game of Sunday’s tripleheader, Eire Og got a leg up in the Junior C Gaelic football qualifiers with a 3-17 to 0-0 blanking of the St. Patricks behind goals by Barry Trainor, Shane Edwards and Matt Grimlich.

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