Clonmel Warriors

by Luke Lonergan

The Clonmel Warriors hosted their first tournament of the Irish American Football Flag season on the 27th of February 2010. Teams taking part comprised of Ireland’s southern teams: Roscrea Falcons, Tralee Titans and the Mullingar Soldiers. It was the Warriors first home game in over a year; they took to the field to face Tralee and Mullingar.

Warriors edge Titans in close contest.

The Warriors meetings with the Titans always ended up in fiercely competitive games and each team set the standard early. The Warriors jumped out to an early lead with Centre Luke Lonergan on the receiving end of Dean O’Regan’s touchdown pass. The conversion was no good. Tralee faltered on their next drive as linebacker Kiefer Lonergan made a 4th down stop. Later, O’Regan fired a pass to wide receiver Gary Crowe who raced towards the end zone for the touchdown. It was O’Regan’s 50th touchdown pass as a player. The Titans bounced back and the score turned to 12-7. Just before halftime, O’Regan lead the team down the field and launched a huge pass to wide receiver Kevin Cunningham who grabbed the ball nicely on his way towards the end zone. The conversion failed and the score stood at 18-7.

The Titans stormed back into the game brilliantly and put up 20 points. The score was broke up by a Warriors touchdown, O’Regan fired a brilliant pass towards Cunningham to still leave the Warriors behind by 3. The Warriors got the ball back and began to work their way downfield. Upon reaching the goal line, Lonergan fumbled the snap. On the last play of the game, O’Regan dropped back and fired a pass to the corner of the end zone where Crowe reeled in the pass and won the game for the Warriors. Clonmel’s sideline and team exploded with jubilation as they snatched victory from the Titans. The final score settled at 30-27.

Warriors pull out last minute victory from the Soldiers

The Clonmel Warriors were playing their first game versus the Soldiers in a number of years and like the Titans game, it was going to prove extremely difficult. The Warriors and Soldiers had a tough defensive first half with Crowe’s receiving touchdown the only score of a physical and slow two quarters.

The third quarter exploded into life as the Soldiers scored and added the conversion to make it 7-6 to the visitors. The Warriors got back down the field and along with the running of Chris Noonan they were able to get back on the board making it 12-7. The game’s back and forth contest continued Linebackers Lonergan and brother, Kiefer Lonergan worked well against the Soldiers running game, and the Soldiers QB Brennan passed for another touchdown to be just one point behind the Warriors. The Warriors ball was turned over due to an interception by Brennan. The quarterback and receiver Beglan scored on a long reception. The Clonmel Warriors were down by a score with just a couple of minutes left on the clock. Making an impressive fourth down stop helped by Chris Noonan’s deflection, O’Regan again went to work and using the entire team got down to the goal line. With just a chance of a few plays possible in the dying seconds he found centre Lonergan in the right side of the end zone for the go ahead score. Noonan deftly received the two point conversion to make the score 25-19 and complete a furious rally.

Both games proved some of the toughest the team has taken part in and the tournament was a huge success both for teams travelling and for giving the Warriors an excellent start to the season. Commendations to O’Regan, Crowe, Cunningham, Noonan, O’Halloran, Cahill and Lonergan for an excellent performance. The Warriors are hugely grateful for the teams travelling and are looking ahead to the next tournament in the south.