Travel Ireland Coaches Antrim Senior Championship
Ballycastle 1-10 Loughgiel 1-22
It took them a while to get going but when they hit their stride there was no stopping county champions and All-Ireland finalists Loughgiel in the opeing round of the Travel Ireland Coaches Antrim senior championship on Saturday afternoon in Ballycastle.
Ballycastle hit the opening two scores through Samantha McKillen and Niamh Cosgrove and, although Loughgiel had levelled by the 13th minute, the Town girls pushed on with points from Áine Donnelly, Janey McIntosh, Shannagh Heggarty and Cosgrove to move into a 0-7 to 0-3 lead after 23 minutes.
However Loughgiel hit back with three points each from Christine Laverty and Róisín McCormick to edge 0-10 to 0-9 ahead at the break.
The third quarter was fairly cagey and after 47 minutes just three more scores had been added, two of them for Loughgiel. It still looked like anyone’s game but when Shamrocks’ substitute Katie McKillop found the net there was no way back for the home side.
Niamh Cosgrove responded with a penalty goal for the ‘Town’ within three minutes, but Loughgiel hit eight points without reply in the last ten minutes of the game, serving notice that even without the injured county stars Lucia McNaughton and Mary McKillen they are very much in line for ten-in-a-row in this season.
Loughgiel: K McKillop 1-2, R McCormick 0-8, 2 frees, C Dobbin 0-4, C Laverty 0-3, A Lynn 0-2, O Laverty 0-1, E McFadden 0-1, A Connolly 0-1.
Ballycastle: N Cosgrove 1-3, 1-0 pen, 0-1 free), J McIntosh 0-2, S McKillen 0-2, S Heggarty 0-2, Á Donnelly 0-1 free.
