Brian McNamara of Cumberland University.
College Report / By John Manley
Dennis Cosgrove scored his first collegiate goal on a header off a corner kick to enable Eastern University to salvage a 1-1 tie with Stockton in Galloway, N.J. last Monday in men’s soccer. He is a junior from Tralee, Co. Kerry. The Eagles are 12-4-1.
Mikie Rowe, the pride of Campile, Co. Wexford, accepted a pass at the top of the box and booted the ball in for the winning goal as Young Harris College defeated Georgia Southwestern State, 1-0, in a Wednesday road tilt. That's Rowe's eighth tally of the season. The Mountain Lions improved to 11-2-2.
Brian McNamara connected on a penalty kick in the 11th minute to tie Cumberland University's match with Life University at 1. The County Kildare senior leads his team with 14 goals this season. Coach Adam Grant's Phoenix won the contest with 16 seconds left in regulation to improve to 12-2-1.
Dylan O’Kane got an assist on the winning goal in Tiffin’s 3-2 overtime victory against Ashland on the road Friday. O’Kane is a sophomore from Bangor, Co. Down. The Dragons are 8-6-3.
Both shots on goal by Dublin freshman Cian Lynch found the back of the net in a 5-1 win for Savannah College of Art & Design over Warner University in Hardeeville, S.C. on Wednesday. The Bees then closed out the season with a 4-1 loss to St. Thomas in Miami Gardens, Fla. on Saturday. Lynch accounted for the Bees’ lone tally, his 14th of the season. SCAD finished with a 7-8-0 mark.
Gary Obrien of Webber International tied the match with less than seven minutes remaining in regulation when his free kick from about 25 yards out found the goal in Wednesday's contest with winless Florida Memorial. But the visitors got their first win when they scored the winning goal 13 minutes into overtime. Obrien is a grad student from Dublin. Webber is now 2-9-1.
Likewise, prospects looked bright for LSU-Alexandria when Sean French scored the first goal of the match in the final minute of the first half. So it stayed until rival Our Lady of the Lakes responded with two goals in the final seven minutes to send the Generals back home with a loss. French is a junior from Galway. The Generals rebounded on Saturday with a 2-1 win over Huston-Tillotson. Dublin senior Mark Hammond handled all the scoring for the victors (10-5-2), with French feeding him on both goals. Hammond now has four goals this season.
Alex O'Brien earned an assist on Embry-Riddle's goal late in the Wednesday road match in a 2-1 loss to Palm Beach Atlantic. That's the Cork sophomore's second assist of the season. Embry is 2-9-2.
Matthew Taylor picked up an assist on the first of two Quinnipiac goals in a 2-0 road win over Siena on Wednesday. The Dublin junior and his teammates are 6-9-1
Richard Slaney got his first goal of the season when he converted a penalty kick as Thomas University defeated Florida Memorial, 5-0. The Dubliner is a senior back for the Night Hawks (7-7-2).
Evan Gaffney made eight saves in goal to help Truett-McConnell edge St. Andrews, 4-3, in overtime in Cleveland, Ga. on Saturday. Gaffney is sophomore from Malahide, Dublin. The Bears are 13-3-2.
WOMEN’S SOCCER
Cliona Crammond converted a free kick that found the bottom of the net to send Goldey-Beacom back to Delaware as 1-0 winners over Queens (N.Y.) on Friday. The goal came in the fifth minute of overtime. That was the seventh goal of the season for the junior from County Wicklow. Goldey is now 11-4-2.
Hartford back Hayley Nolan earned America East All-Conference first-team honors. The junior out of Johnstown, Co. Kildare spearheaded a defense that posted three shutouts and didn't allow more than three goals in any of their matches. Nolan was an All-Rookie Team pick in 2015 and earned second team All-Conference accolades last year. The Hawks finished the season 8-9-2.
Lauren Wade booted in two goals as Carson-Newman remained undefeated with a 5-0 triumph over Coker in Hartsville, S.C. on Saturday. Wade, a senior from Coleraine, Co. Derry, has 11 goals this season. Jacqueline Burns was in goal for the Eagles (14-0-1) and made one save. She is a sophomore from Cookstown, Co. Tyrone.
Amy McGivern earned an assist on the only goal of the match for Tennessee-Martin in Friday’s 2-1 loss to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville in Richmond, Ky. on Friday. She is a junior from Ballynahinch, Co. Down. The Skyhawks dropped to 6-11-3.
WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY
Iona’s Sophie Murphy got second place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Women’s Championship race in Holmdel, N.J. The Dublin freshman produced a time of 21:27.0 for 6,000 meters, exceeded only by teammate Egle Morenaite, who broke the tape in 21:20.1. Iona’s Niamh O’Connor, a junior from County Kildare, was along in 22:14.5, good for 13th place. Iona, with four finishers in the top 10, handily won the team title.
Villanova’s Siofra Cleirigh Buttner finished 18th in the Big East Conference Women’s Championship race in Kenosha, Wis. The Dublin senior finished 6,000 meters in 21:09.8. Catarina Rocha of Providence won the race in 19:59.0.
MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY
There were three Irish among the top 20 finishers in the Big East Conference Men’s Championship race in Kenosha, Wis. Butler freshman Barry Keane from Waterford got fifth place with a 24:52.5 clocking for 8,000 meters. He was first in on his team. The Providence College duo of Aaron Hanlon and Liam Harris placed 13th and 18th, respectively. Hanlon, a senior from Drogheda, needed 25:09.3 to finish, while Harris, a sophomore from Douglas, Co. Cork, stopped the watch in 25:22.5. Georgetown’s Jonathan Green won the race in 24:27.6. The Hoyas won the team crown, with Butler second and Providence fourth.
Lamar’s Cormac Kelly finished seventh in the men’s race at the Southland Conference Championships in Abilene, Tex. The junior out of County Carlow got 8,000 meters in 24:56.6. McNeese State freshman Brian Flanagan reported home in 25:15.6, which got him 16th place. He hails from Dublin. Lamar’s Keith Fallon, a senior from Dublin, finished 22nd in 25:21.7. Luke Horgan, a McNeese freshman out of Cork, placed 49th in 26:14.4. Lamar’s Jamie Crowe ran a winning 24:29.1, which also proved a tiebreaker as Lamar and McNeese finished tied in the team chase with 42 points apiece. Crowe’s win tipped the team crown to Lamar, with Brendan Gilroy’s McNeese squad having to settle for runner-up.
Mississippi’s Sean Tobin was the eighth finisher in the Southeastern Conference Men’s Championship in Athens, Ga. The senior from Clonmel, Co. Tipperary came in at the 24:02.2 mark. Alabama’s Vincent Kiprop won the race in 23:15.4.
Ryan Sharkey of Miami (Ohio) got 33rd place in the 80-man field in the Mid-American Conference Men’s Championship in Oxford, Ohio. A junior from Belfast, Sharkey ran 8,000 meters in 25:37.0 in a race won by Eastern Michigan’s Hlynur Andresson in 24:30.0. Miami took second place to Eastern Michigan among teams.
The Tulsa duo of Peter Lynch and Robert Tully finished 35th and 53rd, respectively in the American Athletic Conference Men’s Championship race in Philadelphia. Lynch, a freshman from Kilkenny, finished in 26:38.8, while Tully, a Dublin sophomore, was along in 27:19.5. Tulane’s Emmanuel Rotich won the race in 24:58.6. Tulsa claimed the team title.
MEN’S GOLF
Rowan Lester of Texas Wesleyan won medal honors at the Whistling Straits Intercollegiate in Kohler, Wis., leading a field that produced two other Irish in the top 20. Lester, a Dublin sophomore, appears to have lost none of the form that saw him top the NAIA Championships last spring. He shot rounds of 71 and 70, which left him as the only golfer to finish the event under par. He had three strokes on Northern Michigan's Martin Eliasson, who shot even-par 144.
Two strokes further back in joint-third came Brian Murtagh of Cardinal Stritch University. The Galway senior was good for rounds of 70 and 76. Chris Black, a teammate of Eliasson, shared 12th place with two others who matched his 36-hole total of 152. The sophomore out of Lisburn, Co. Antrim posted consecutive rounds of 76.
Texas Wesleyan won the team crown by 16 strokes over Northwestern Ohio. Northern Michigan got third place and Stritch sixth.
Charlotte's Marc Boucher was low man for his team in the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate in Dallas. The Dublin sophomore tied for 17th place on the strength of rounds of 72, 70 and 70. That left him a stroke under par for the tournament, with a
12-stroke gap between him and Baylor's Cooper Dossey, the medalist. Conor Purcell, a sophomore from Malahide, Dublin, was next in line for Charlotte. His 216 (70-72-74) was good for a share of 29th place.
Rounds of 77 and 81 left Iona's Oisin Devereux, yet another sophomore from Dublin, tied for 41st place in the Lehigh Intercollegiate at Saucon Valley-Grace Golf Club in Bethlehem, Pa. He was 15 strokes off the winning score shared by Johnny Hsu and Billy Johns of the host school.
WOMEN’S GOLF
Arizona State's Olivia Mehaffey finished joint-11th at the Pac-12 Preview at Nanea Golf Club in Konea, Hawaii. The Belfast sophomore stroked rounds of 73 and 74 to finish as low woman for the Sun Devils and 10 behind medalist Andrea Lee of Stanford.
Kansas State freshman Niamh McSherry tied for 46th place in the Maryb Kauth Invitational at Briggs Ranch in San Antonio. McSherry, from Lurgan, Co. Armagh, shot rounds of 77, 75 and 74. She finished 10 strokes over par and 19 behind teammate Connie Jaffrey, the medalist.
FIELD HOCKEY
Sarah Hawkshaw knocked in her ninth goal of the season to give Massachusetts a 2-1 victory over Richmond in Amherst, Mass. on Friday. The Dublin senior took advantage of a deflected penalty corner to score the match winner. UMass is 12-7.
