Antrim Hurling League Division 1

Ballycran 3-18 Dunloy 1-13

A skeleton Dunloy team, shorn of their county players, were no match for Ballycran in Sunday’s opening league game at McKenna Park.

The men in black and amber made a great start and boosted by two goals from full forward Stuart Martin they were 2-4 ahead before Dunloy had raised a flag, the points coming from Chris Egan (2), Paul Sheehan and Liam Savage.

Full forward Anton McGrath pulled a goal back to get Dunloy on the scoresheet, and points from Eamon Smyth and Nicky McKeague gave things a better look, but the home side pushed on  with a Chris Egan goal plus points from James Coule, (2), Liam Savage and Sheehan to lead by 3-9 to 1-5 at half time.

Points from Barry Scott, Nicky McKeague (2) and Ronan Molloy at the start of the second half closed the gap to just six and there was a bit of hope for the visitors, but Ballycran came back strongly and their forwards sent over a series of excellent points to win convincingly in the end by 3-18 to 1-13.