Roche 1-7 St. Fechin’s 6-18

Roche sustained the most comprehensive championship defeat in the club’s history on Friday night, falling to a 26-point loss against rampant St. Fechin’s at Páirc Clan na Gael.

Emmets were unable to live with the Termonfeckin charges’ pace and power, conceding 6-18 for the first time on record.

It all means that Paul Grier’s men are relying on Fechin’s overcoming Sean O’Mahony’s in round two next weekend, with Roche then doing likewise against the Point Road natives.

The teams were actually level three times early on, after Dan O’Connell had given Roche the lead for the one and only time with the first score of play.

Barry O’Hare looked sharp and his opening notch – the game’s fifth point – was a beauty from the right-hand flank, and the shooter converted two more frees as the opening eight white flags were shared equally.

But a burst of 2-6 to one-point in the second quarter was to be the turning spell – a fine register by Shane Byrne coming amid Fechin’s dominance. Eoghan Duffy sliced through for goal number one prior to Eoin Hackett being left free to roam through and dispatch major two by Evin Quigley.

Trailing 2-10 to five points, Roche’s race was as good as run and Fechin’s really compounded the misery, scoring three consecutive points on the restart in advance of Eoghan Duffy’s slickly taken goal.

A maximum by O’Connell – a toe-poke that wrong-footed the goalkeeper – at least got the boys in blue on the scoreboard, but Fechin’s struck for three more goals before Caoimhín Reilly kicked over the top from 30 metres – Duffy and Niall Devlin (3) making the umpire nearest the green flag work.

O’Hare rounded off Roche’s contribution, though Fechin’s had the final say with Louth star Bevan Duffy kicking the point of the night from an acute angle.

Roche: Evin Quigley; Joe Bishop, Peter Lynch, Harry O’Connell; Gerard Browne, James McDonnell, Seán Dawe; Glen Stewart, David Quigley; Liam Carthy, Dan O’Connell (1-1), Shane Byrne (0-1); Mark Byrne, Barry O’Hare (0-4, three frees), Martin Carroll

Subs: David O’Connell for Carthy (42), Caoimhín Reilly (0-1) for Browne (44), Mikey McCourt for M Byrne (46)

St. Fechin’s: Niall McDonnell; Pauric O’Donoghue (0-1), Danny Burnell (0-1), Niall McCabe; Seán Kerrisk, David Collier, Jamie McDonnell; Bevan Duffy (0-2), Paul Mathews (0-1); Eoin Hackett (1-1), Colm O’Neill (0-1), Joe Corrigan (0-5, two frees); Niall Devlin (2-1), Eoghan Duffy (3-1), Ronan Holcroft (0-4, two frees)

Subs: Ryan Walsh, Matthew Flanagan, Adam O’Neill

Referee: David Fedigan (Hunterstown Rovers)