Danske Bank Gallagher Cup Hurling semi-final:

St Mary’s CBGS Belfast 5-18 St Patrick’s Maghera 3-16 AET.

2-4 in the first period of extra time helped steer St Mary’s to the final of the Gallagher Cup with a win over St Pat’s Maghera at Dunsilly on Tuesday. The Belfast school has started well in normal time also, and were seven to the good going in at half time. However Maghera came storming back in the second period and it looked like they would make it through to the final, but St Mary’s hit back to go two ahead going down the home straight. St Pat’s fought back however and landed two lovely points, the equaliser coming from PJ Glover to bring the game to extra time.

That was to turn out to be the vital period of the game as wind assisted St Mary’s hit 2-4 in reply to just a single point from St Pat’s. Corner forward Iarlaith Rogan started it when he got in behind the Maghera defence and fired over. Darren de lander added another before Cormac McCann showed great skill and bravery to hit two goals in as many minutes. Two more quick points followed and the gap was out to ten, though St Pat’s pulled a point back during before the break.

Maghera faced a mammoth task, but they started with three points from play to cut the gap back to six half way through the last period. But St Mary’s would not be denied and full forward Daire Jemfrey capped a great individual display by hitting a great solo goal to seal his team a final place.

St Mary’s: Cormac McCann 2-4, Daire Jemfrey 2-2, Darren Delander 1-3, Kealan McCann 0-4, Iarlaith Rogan 0-3, Conal Dempsey, Jake Ward and Jay Gault 0-1 each

St Patrick’s: Finn Cartin 2-4, Neil McDermott 1-0, Donnacha Collins 0-4, PJ Glover 0-3, Charlie Bradley and Seán O’Kane 0-2 each, Rory Boyle 0-1