Antrim Minor Hurling Championship
The Antrim Minor Hurling Championship got underway on Friday evening with Cushendall and Ballycastle winning through in their preliminary round games against St Paul’s and Oisins.
Cushendall hosted St Paul’s at Pairc Mhuire where they were in dominant form from the start. An early goal from Conlith McKinley and points from Fiontan McQuillan, Ronan McAteer (2) and Pierce McKeegan had the Ruairis seven up before a Danon McKeogh goal brought St Paul’s back into the game. However it was only a brief respite for the visitors and the Cushendall boys pushed on to lead by 2-10 to 1-2, the second goal also coming from full forward McKinley.
Caolan McKernan pointed for St Paul’s at the start of the second half but when Aidan Ritson came back with Cushendall’s third goal there was no way back for the Belfast boys. McKinley went on to complete his hat-trick of goals to steer his team to a 4-18 to 1-8 win and set up a semi-final meeting with Loughgiel in two weeks’ time.
Over in Glenariffe the scores were almost the same with visitors Ballycastle also hitting 4-18 to the Oisins 10 points
However the scoring pattern was much different in this game and midway through the first half the Oisins actually held a four point lead. Ballycastle came back with four points without reply through Feargal McKiernan, Caolan O’Connor and two frees from Smyth, to level the game on 25 minutes and they were level again at 0-8 each going into half time when the home team had Caolan O’Connor sent off after receiving a second yellow card. Worse was to follow for the Oisins as two more of their players received straight red cards within three minutes of each other early in the second half and Ballycastle took over. Joe McToal started Ballycastle’s race for home with a goal in the thirty fifth minute and Seamus McAuley followed with two goals from penalties. Glenariffe battled hard against the odds but the boys from the Town pushed on to secure a semi-final place against Dunloy.
Minor B Championship
In the Minor B Championship quarter finals Naomh Eanna had a 6-14 to 2-14 win over Cloney Gaels at Hightown. Up in Feystown Shane O’Neill’s beat Lamh Dhearg by 1-23 to 1-6, Tir na nÓg travelled to Milltown and beat St Gall’s by 4-7 to 2-10, while Rossa had a runaway 9-18 to 0-4 win over Loch Mór Dál gCais at Mallusk.
The B semi-finals which are scheduled for September 6th sees Rossa take on Shane O’Neill’s Glenarm while Naomh Eanna face Tir na nÓg.