All County U16 Hurling League Division 1
Ruairi Og Cushendall 6-19 Loughgiel Shamrocks 2-6
Cushendall had too much power and pace for an understrength Loughgiel team in Monday evening’s Under 16 Hurling League game at Pairc Mhuir, winning at a canter in the end as they showed they will be one of the main contenders for the league title. Loughgiel arrived short of star midfielder Christy McGarry and all of the Under 14 players who have a big Feile game this week and so the game started 14 a side. Cushendall were on it from the start and early points of Calum Kilgore and Fiontan McQuillan put them in front. Conor O’Mullan pulled a point back for Loughgiel but Cushendall came back strongly with a Colm McKeegan point which was followed soon afterwards by the first goal of the game from Fiontan McQuillan.
Twenty minutes in Loughgiel were still very much in the game as Ronan McCollum grabbed a couple of neat points but the last ten minutes of the half saw the game get away from them as the home side hit 2-6 without reply, the goals coming from Colm McKeegan and Josh Schnell.
Conor O’Mullan gave the Shamrocks a little hope when he grabbed a goal two minutes into the second half points from Padraig McKillop and Colm McKeegan all but cancelled it out before Fiontan McQuillan hit a real rocket high to the corner of the Loughgiel net. Ronan McCollum and Conor O’Mullan kept the Loughgiel scoreboard ticking over but Cushendall were dominating and two more Colm McKeegan goals and a series of Fiontan McQuillan points ended the rout.
Referee – Paul O’Neill (Creggan)
In the other two Division 1 games played on Monday evening Ballycastle had a 2-7 to 0-4 win over Slaughtneil at Pairc MacUilin while Rossa travelled ot Ballinascreen and beat them 1-10 to 1-01
