Danske Bank Mageean Cup semi-final
St. Mary’s CBGS 3-18-0-07 St Louis, Ballymena
From Kevin Herron at Dunsilly
A Caolan O’Duibhfinn goal midway through the first-half opened up a bit of breathing space for St. Mary’s as they established an eight-point advantage at the break and pushed on in the second period to book their place in next Friday’s Danske Bank Mageean Cup decider at the Dub with a 3-18-0-07 win over St Louis’ Ballymena at Dunsilly this afternoon.
O’Duibhfinn would double his goal tally before the interval and St Louis’ struggled to contain the Belfast sides attacking quality in the second period as they tagged a further 1-11 – substitute Ronan Crossan bagging his sides third of the afternoon.
A comfortable win in the end for St. Mary’s however, the opening quarter of the encounter was anything but as St Louis’ matched their opponents evenly.
Gary McIlhatton popped over the opening point of the afternoon though Eoin McFerran responded with a delightful point from range.
The sides traded the next two scores through Dannan McKeogh and Shane O’Boyle before Colla McDonnell nudged St Louis’ ahead from a converted free to make it 0-03-0-02 after ten minutes.
Daire Murphy levelled the game for the third time with a point of the turn and then gave his side the narrowest of leads for the third time.
St. Mary’s should have had the first goal of the game but Dannan McKeogh hit the side netting – it would eventually arrive just short of the midway point in the opening half as Caolan O’Duibhfinn headed for the target and rifled low past Paul Doherty to give his side a 1-04-0-03 lead.
This gave the west Belfast side confidence as Dannan McKeogh added a further point and on 17 minutes O’Duibhfinn claimed his second goal of the game – despite being urged to pop the ball over; the confident St Pauls forward decided to go for his second major and it was a decision well justified as his side were firmly in the driving seat and 2-05-0-03 to the good.
Dannan McKeogh converted his first free of the afternoon approaching the 20 minute mark and goalscorer O’Duibhfinn ended an eight minute scoreless period.
In that time St Louis’ goalkeeper Paul Doherty was forced to deny Daire Murphy his customary goal. Ballymena were without a score since the 10th minute but tagged on late first half scores through Colla McDonnell (free) to cut the deficit to eight at the interval (2-07-0-05).
St. Mary’s opened the second half scoring through influential captain Caolan McKernan and Ruairi Murray then conjured up his first point of the afternoon.
Dannan McKeogh converted his second free and although Daire Murphy was still experiencing a frustrating afternoon looking for a goal- he popped over his second point to make it four scores on the trot for his side .
St. Mary’s midfield engine room of Eoin Trainor and Andy McLean continued to work tirelessly and a sensational long range point Caolan McKernan ensured the scoreboard kept ticking.
Successive Dannan McKeogh free’s and another Ruairi Murray point had St. Mary’s 2-15-0-05 ahead with a quarter of an hour remaining and afforded the Glen Road men the opportunity to bring on some fresh legs.
Ronan Crossan made an immediate impact from the bench with a shot on the turn that sailed between the posts.
St Louis’ had been on the back foot since the restart and claimed their two second-half scores courtesy of Ronan McCollum frees.
Eoin Trainor angled the ball over the bar in-between McCollum’s points and with less than five minutes remaining Ronan Crossan rifled home his sides third goal of the game.
A late Caolan McKernan free was the last score of a semi-final that was in truth one-sided as St. Mary’s ran out 3-18-0-07 winners to claim a place in the final next Friday evening at the Dub.
St. Mary’s CBGS: A Mullan, E May, D Murray, D Wilson, C Boyle, C McKernan (0-03, 0-02f), D Churchill, E Trainor (0-01), A McLean, R Murray (0-02), G McIlhatton (0-01), D Delaney, C O’Duibhfinn (2-01), D Murphy (0-03), D McKeogh (0-06, 0-04f). Subs: F Mervyn for D Delaney (46); R Crossan (1-01) for D Murphy (46); M Toner for A McLean (51); D Magee for E May (54).
St Louis, Ballymena: P Doherty, L Muholland, D McMullan, R McCartney, F Henry, R McCloskey, R McKillop, C Dickson, S O’Boyle (0-01), E McFerran (0-01), C Higgins, R McQullian, C McDonnell (0-03f), P Dougan, R McCollum (0-02f). Subs: S McGurk for C McDonnell (37); C McCloskey for E McFerran (37); D Donaghy for R McQuillan (49).
Referee: Sean McGuigan (Slaughtneil)
