All County Senior Reserve Cup Hurling

Dunloy 1-16 Cushendall 1-11

A strong start in which they totally dominated opponents Cushendall saw Dunloy book their place in the semi-final of the Reserve Cup Hurling at Pearse Park, Dunloy last night. The home side blitzed Cushendall during a brilliant opening quarter, at the end of which they led by 1-5 to 0-1, and though Cushendall came back into it the Cuchullains powered on to lead by 1-10 to 0-5 at half time.

The second half saw a different Cushendall emerge from the changing rooms and an early goal from Ed McQuillan gave them the shot in the arm they needed. They fought their way back to close within a point with twelve minutes left to play, but Dunloy steadied the ship and a series of top class points saw them winners by five at the end.

Playing at a high tempo that Cushendall could not match, Dunloy flew out of the traps with points from Paudie Shivers, Eoin O’Neill and Alastair Dooey. When Eoin O’Neill finished a free flowing move with a goal in the eighth minute the gap was out to six, and though Eoin Laverty eventually opened the visitors account with a point, further scores from Deaglan Smyth, Eoin O’Neill and Eamon Smyth, in reply to just one by Fergus McNaughton for Cushendall, widened the gap to seven. Emmet Laverty and his brother Eoin pulled a couple back for Cushendall to give them some hope but points from Eoin O’Neill and Shane Dooey left the home side ahead by 1-10 to 0-5 at the interval.

Left – Eoin O’Neill scores Dunloy’s goal and Right – Ed McQuillan fires in Cushendall’s goal

If Cushendall were to get back into the game they needed a good start to the second half, and that is how it worked out as good approach work by Emmet Laverty and Alex Delargy sent Ed McQuillan clear in front of goal and the corner-forward finished smartly to lift the Ruairi’s spirits. The fightback was on and with Eoin Laverty firing over some great points from frees and brother Emmet hitting his stride at midfield they closed the gap to 1-11 to 1-10 with twelve minutes still to play.

However Dunloy slowly but surely steadied the ship and finished strongly with some great points from Dooey and O’Neill to book their place in a semi-final against Portaferry.

Overall a great contest, especially for Reserve hurling. I know there was a good sprinkling of seniors on either side but at time when fans are starved of club hurling this was a joy to watch and it shows that both clubs are blessed with hurling talent, even outside their senior teams.

DUNLOY

Ger Dixon, Oran Quinn, Karl O’Kane, Adam Mullan, Eamon Smyth, Stephen McGuigan, Cahir McGuigan, Ciaran Elliott, Paudie Shivers, Shane Dooey, Gabriel McTaggart, Paudie Conlon, Ronan Molloy, Alistair Dooey, Eoin O’Neill.

SUBS – Deaglan Smyth, Michael Murphy.

CUSHENDALL

Colin Hayden, Stephen Walsh, Damien Bergin, Joe McCurry, Liam Gillian, Eunan McKillop, Fred McCurry, Eoin McManus, Emmet Laverty, Scott Walsh, Fergus McCambridge, Cormac McClafferty, Ed McQuillan, Alex Delargy, Eoin Lavery

SUBS – Niall McCormick on for Scott Walsh, Cathal McDonnell for Liam Gillan, Eamon Laverty for Damien Bergin, Ryan Delargey for Cormac McClafferty, Dominic Delargy for Ed McQuillan

Referee – Francis Traynor (Loughgiel)

Pics by John McIlwaine