North American Playoff Results
Saturday September 3rd, 2005

More results to follow

Home Venue No Advantage for Philly
Intermediate Football
Michael Cusack’s 2-9 Philadelphia Donegal 1-7

Cusack’s opened well taking a goal and three points without reply in the first fifteen minutes of this exciting game on Saturday. A little bit of sloppy marking let them down though, and Donegal capitalised on this to pull back four points with some very strong play in their half forwards. Cusack’s were winning plenty of frees in their forwards, but squandering them by putting them wide.

The Cusacks’ keeper was fooled by the deceptive bounce of an incoming high ball that looked like it was going to bounce up into his hands, but the ball died and trickled into the net to level the scores before a disbelieving and gasping San Francisco entourage. Philly were scoring from unfeasibly tight angles now and edging into the lead, but Cusack's pulled back again and levelled the scores at 1-5 to 1-5 at half time.

Early in the second half, Cusack's got a blistering goal from point blank range courtesy of Paul Foley, bringing a refreshing end to a depressingly stoppage-prone bit of play.

With most of the players bunched in the Donegal half of the field, Cusack’s were piling on the pressure, although Philly were able to make the odd foray into enemy territory to ominously float the ball around the Cusack’s goal mouth. Nevertheless, the San Francisco representatives kept defending, and working the ball up the field to take their scores regardless. The pressure was still very much on Philly for the rest of the game, and Cusack’s held their nerve as Donegal tried desperately to get a late goal. The late goal never came, and Cusack’s progressed to the next round.

Referee: Gareth Fitzsimmons, Chicago

San Francisco Fall Short in Hurling Thriller
Senior Hurling Semi Final
Chicago 4-16 San Francisco 4-10

This was a very even game at first with both teams winning the ball in equal measure. This was until a nice ball set up by Liam Head was smacked into the net by John Brady to push San Francisco into the lead and put them on a roll. The Naomh Padraig side was calling the shots and taking most of them too. Chicago won a few frees to get back within three points of a Californian team that could have had this game wrapped up very early were it not for the very high number of wides.

Chicago began penetrating deep into an uncrowded San Franciscan end of the field and there were a few ominously close shaves that culminated in a goal to take Chicago to within a point of equalising. Chicago were now turning up the heat, but their finish was letting them down as they only got two scores from play in the first half.

The second half began with the sides level at 1-5 each. Chicago edged into the lead as San Francisco won a penalty, the outcome of which was a ball promptly blasted into the net by John Brady again. The retaliation came soon enough though with another Chicago goal within a minute, followed soon after by another high ball deflected into the net past San Francisco keeper Brian Flynn for goal number three.

Chicago were on fire, but San Francisco kept their heads and worked the ball up the field to claim a goal by Donal Neville that narrowed the Chicago lead to three points. Chicago pushed ahead again and opened their lead to ten points. It was at this point that a foul was committed inside Chicago’s goal mouth leading to a penalty. John Brady took the shot and rattled the net with it, but in an uncanny echo of the tit-for-tat goal scoring of earlier in the game, Chicago got another goal back with a shot deflected off Brian Flynn’s stick.

It was a valiant effort by San Francisco and was a performance to be proud of, but it was just short of what was needed to progress to the next round.

Referee: John Sexton, Limerick