Down recorded their first win of the Division 2A season as Ronan Sheehan's side defeated Kerry 2-23 to 1-19 in Ballycran.
McKenna Park is a tough place for visiting teams to go and so it proved once again as the Kingdom suffered back-to-back defeats after their opening loss to Carlow.
Kerry made the perfect start as Micheal Leane goaled in the opening moments, and a Maurice O’Connor free and a Dan Goggin point, either side of a Pearse Og McCrickard free, had them in good nick seven minutes in.
Caolan Taggart got up the pitch for a point for Down, quickly followed by one from Donal Hughes, to cut the gap before Gavin Dooley and Tim Prenter exchanged scores. Kerry’s Killian Hayes and Down’s Tom McGrattan did likewise to leave Stephen Molumphy’s side two points to the good after 10 minutes.
Kerry scored four of the next five points to really take control of the contest, leading 1-08 to 0-06, but Down, with McCrickard prominent in the scoring stakes, were hanging in there.
The gap was still five points at the half-hour mark, but two Fionan Mackessy frees gave Kerry a 1-15 to 0-11 interval lead.
The Mourne men, now with the wind behind them, controlled the second-half proceedings though, hitting 2-08 without reply between the 35th and 52nd minutes to leave them in a great position.
Portaferry’s Daithi Sands got the first of those, blasting to the net when the chance seemed to have escaped him, before Danny Toner grabbed a second to leave Down 2-19 to 1-15 ahead.
O’Connor opened Kerry’s second-half scoring with a free in the 57th minute, but the same player missed a penalty five minutes from time, Stephen Keith saving, to end any chance of a late comeback – McGrattan's closing point securing a seven-point win for Down.
In Division 2B, Derry secured their second derby win in a row as they defeated Donegal 2-20 to 1-19 in Letterkenny.
The Oakleafers were 10-point winners over Tyrone in round one, but found things much trickier against an ever-improving Tir Chonaill outfit.
Donegal made a fine start to proceedings, dead-ball specialist Gerry Gilmore whipping over a number of scores as they led 0-08 to 0-03 at the end of the first quarter.
Derry settled to the task though, and corner-forward Dara Mooney goaled to leave the sides level heading to the turn, 0-12 to 1-09.
Derry proved much too strong in the second half, keeping their opponents scoreless for 23 minutes at one stage as they hit seven points without reply.
Cormac Finn, Gilmore and Luke White hit a trio of Donegal scores to bring the deficit back to four points, but Derry closed the game out with Cahal Murray adding another goal late on to seal the deal.
Cavan got the better of Louth in their Division 3A clash at Kingspan Breffni.
The Breffni men hit 3-18 against Sligo last weekend, but it wasn’t enough to avoid defeat. They went one better this time, their 3-19 tally good enough for a six-point win.
The sides evenly split the first 10 points, but Matthew Hynes gave the home side a bit of breathing space with a goal in the 14th minute and a second soon after helped them into a 2-10 to 0-12 lead – Darren Geoghegan doing the bulk of the scoring for the Wee County.
Liam O’Brien added a third Cavan goal two minutes after the restart and the hosts appeared to cruising, but Geoghegan took his tally to 1-09 to get his side back within six points with 15 minutes remaining.
Points from Geoghegan and Conor Murphy brought the margin down to four points as the game ticked into the red, but Ollie Bellew’s side hit the final two points to take the win.
Longford were too strong for Warwickshire in the early Division 3B game, Adrian Moran’s side running out 2-21 to 1-15 victors at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park.
After an even start, Michael Mulcahy found the net to put Longford 1-04 to 0-03 ahead after 11 minutes and the same player struck again 13 minutes later to help them into a 2-09 to 0-07 half-time lead.
The third quarter saw the sides go score for score before Jack Grealish found the net for Warwickshire to bring the English side to within five points, 2-15 to 1-13.
Longford steadied the ship from there though, out-scoring their opponents 0-06 to 0-02 between Grealish’s goal and the full-time whistle.
The second 3B game between Leitrim and Fermanagh was a complete non contest as the Erne County made the short trip home with a 1-26 to 1-05 win to their name.
Fermanagh had 10 different scorers in all and despite conceding the opening score to Clement Cunniffee, they’d hit 1-09 without reply – Jimmy Tormey with the goal – to ease clear.
Conor Hackett did grab another point for Leitrim, but they trailed 1-15 to 0-02 at the break with Luca McCusker helping himself to half a dozen points in the opening 35 minutes.
As had been the case in the first half, Leitrim opened the scoring – Hackett again on target – but the white flags kept coming at the other end.
The home side did grab a goal in the 59th minute following a goalmouth scramble, although they lost Gavin O’Hagan to a second yellow card in the final minutes to round off a miserable afternoon’s work.
Watch Cork v Kilkenny in the Allianz Hurling League on Saturday from 7.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to updates on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
Watch highlights on Allianz League Sunday on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 9.30pm, follow a live blog every Sunday afternoon on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to live updates on Sunday Sport
