Sigerson Cup Football
St Mary’s 1-15 IT Tralee 1-10
John McIlwaine reports from St Teresa’s
St Mary’s booked their place in the quarter final of the Sigerson Cup when they beat IT Tralee by five points in Wednesday’s round 3 game at St Teresa’s. Slaughtnei’s Shane McGuigan scored 0-10 as The Ranch secured a place in the last eight against a Tralee side who finished the game with just twelve men, two of them seeing red and the third a black card in the final minutes.
In a bad tempered and tempestuous game match referee Martin McNally was a busy man, issuing ten yellow cards in the first half alone. The visitors started better and when corner forward Conor Keane was gifted a goal by a wayward pass in the Ranch defence they appeared to be gaining the upper hand, but with Jarlath Og Burns brilliant at midfield the Belfast college began to find their feet and when Niall Toner rose high on the edge of the ‘square’ to fist home Burns cross they were back in the game.
They powered 1-5 to 1-2 ahead playing some great attacking football, but they then fell back into their shell and the Kerry lads hit the last four points of the half, three of them absolute gifts handed to them to a nervous looking Ranch defence, to lead by 1-6 to 1-5 at the break.
St Mary’s were much better in the second half and though they fell a further point behind just after the restart the accurate Shane McGuigan soon had them level with two pointed frees. They edged ahead again on two occasions with McGuigan points, despite losing Jarlath Og Burns to injury, but Tralee found a reply on each occasion and were still level with ten minutes to play.
However indiscipline cost the Kerry side and St Mary’s pulled away to to win by five in the end and set up a quarter-final meeting next week with Maynooth.
Scorers for St Mary’s: Shane McGuigan 0-10 (0-9f), Niall Toner 1-0, Tiernan Sludden 0-2, Aaron Duffy, Jarlath Óg Burns, Ryan Coleman 0-1 each.
Scorers for IT Tralee: Jack Savage 0-8 (0-8f), Conor Keane 1-0, Gavin Crowley, Dara Moynihan 0-1 each.
St Mary’s College
1. Marc Reid (Down)
2. Liam Rafferty (Tyrone)
3. Caolan Dillon (Armagh)
4. Michael Rooney (Down)
5. Colm Byrne (Tyrone)
6. Ryan McCusker (Tyrone)
7. Aaron Duffy (Armagh)
9. Jarlath Óg Burns (Armagh)
8. Liam Devlin (Down)
10. Stephen McConville (Down)
11. Ryan Coleman (Tyrone)
12. Aaron Boyle (Armagh)
13. Niall Toner (Armagh)
14. Shane McGuigan (Derry)
15. Cahair McKinney (Armagh)
Subs
22. Tiernan Sludden (Tyrone) for Boyle
18. Conor McAllister (Derry) for Rafferty (49)
IT Tralee
1. Conor Hurley (Kerry)
2. Thomas Kearns (Wicklow)
3. Gavin Crowley (Kerry)
4. Brian Fitzgerald (Kerry)
5. DJ Murphy (Kerry)
6. Shane Cronin (Kerry)
19. Darragh Kennedy (Limerick)
8. Liam Kearney (Kerry)
9. Greg Horan (Kerry)
10. Dara Moynihan (Kerry)
11. Jack Savage (Kerry)
12. Aaron McCarthy (Kerry)
13. James Duggan (Kerry)
14. Mark O’Shea (Kerry)
15. Conor Keane (Kerry)
Subs
Michael Potts (Kerry) for Crowley (10)
Conor Byrne (Limerick) for McCarthy (55)
Jack Morgan (Kerry) for Duggan (55)
Referee: Martin McNally (Monaghan)
