Antrim Senior Camogie semi-final
Loughgiel 4-13 Ballycastle 0-9
Antrim county champions Loughgiel produced a power packed performance to overcome the challenge of Ballycastle in Saturday’s semi-final at Quinn Park, Ballymena. When the side met in the league a few weeks ago there was only four points between the sides, but once again the Shamrocks proved that they save their best for the big occasion, and on this form will start next weekend’s final against Dunloy as firm favourites.
Rachael Murphy was always a problem for any defence and on Saturday, she returned to full-forward for Loughgiel and destroyed any hopes that last year’s finalists Ballycastle might have had of stopping the Shamrocks’ juggernaut.
Murphy grabbed a hat-trick in the 4-13 to 0-9 win over Ballycastle with her first two goals arguably killing the game before it had any opportunity to burst into life.
Annie Lynn raced in on goal in the second minute, Murphy pulled off to the right, received the pass and fired a bullet to the net.
Murphy then laid on a pass for Emma McMullan to go for goal a couple of minutes later. McMullan was blocked down, but recovered and kicked the sliotar to the net.
If Ballycastle were not in trouble at that point, they certainly were in the 12th minute when a long ball in from Róisín McCormick dropped in the goal area and Murphy scrambled it home and the Shamrocks were 3-3 to 0-1 up and on their way to a comfortable victory.
Their half-back line, with Lucia McNaughton superb in the role of sweeper, cut out everything that the challengers threw at them and Ballycastle had to bring Maeve Kelly to midfield to get a foothold in the game.
From 3-4 to 0-2 down at the water-break, they clawed back to 3-5 to 0-5 at half-time and Nuala Devlin scored an excellent point at the start of the second half.
However Róisín McCormick then took over and from frees and open play she hit the target six times during the final half hour with Racquel Murphy providing 1-1 taking a high delivery from Maeve Connolly in the 46th minute to complete her hat-trick.
It turned out easier than expected for the Shamrocks, their team-work much superior to the younger Ballycastle team. Niamh Donnelly had a great game at centre back for Ballycastle and Maeve Kelly showed just how dangerous she can be with a good supply of ball, but overall the rest of the team never really got to the pace of the game as Loughgiel’s stranglehold on the championship crown shows no sign of loosening.
Loughgiel : Racquel Murphy 3-1, Emma McMullan 1-1, Róirín McCormick 0-9, 5 frees, Maeve Connolly 0-1, Annie Lynn 0-1.
Ballycastle: Caoimhe Wright 0-3, 2 frees, Maeve Kelly 0-3, 1 free, Nuala Devlin 0-1, Fionnuala Kelly 0-1, Faye McIntosh 0-1.
