U17B Football semi-final

All Saints 2-11 Rossa 0-1

All Saints U17 footballers followed in the footsteps of their senior counterparts from the day before when they proved too strong for a dogged Rossa side who battled to the end but were unable to produce scores when they needed them.

Ballymena dominated the early stages at Quinn Park and were 1-03 up after 12 minutes, the goal coming from a classy dinked finish by Fiontan Bradley as the Rossa keeper advanced to close him down.

Rossa started to get into the game, but weren’t getting much change out of the Saints defence who were well marshalled by Murphy at full back and the returning Harry Connon. 

The men in blue finally got off the mark with a fine point from their centre forward. 

Lewis Devlin and Liam McEnhill were having a great tussle at midfield but the Ballymena men were picking up all the breaks and added 3 more points before the break from McKeown and 2 by McDermott from placed balls. Rossa hit the upright with a point attempt late on and the Saints defence scrambled the ball clear to leave 8 between the sides at the short whistle.

1-6 to 0-01

Ballymena started the 2nd period brightly and dominated possession for the first 10 minutes. The next 2 scores came from a Bradley point from play and a super McKeown point from a tight angle to stretch the lead further. Rossa had a period of possession, but couldn’t make any inroads and had a few missed chances under intense pressure from the Saints defence. 

On the 50th minute, the Ballymena side broke up the field and Kaczmarek scored a cracking point after a lung busting solo run. Both sides were ringing the changes but it didn’t stop the home side’s progress. A fine cross field kick pass by Bradley found the clever run behind the Rossa defence by Ciaran Logan and he managed to beat the onrushing keeper with a deft flick to send the ball to the back of the net. 

To be fair to Rossa they never gave up and were trying everything to get some scores on the board but just couldn’t get their shooting into gear. McEnhill found himself with a chance on goal but a fine full length diving block by Murphy scuppered his chance and that summed up their day. Not to be for Rossa but the Ballymena men advance to the final to face St. John’s. 

All Saints: Finn Connon, Matthew Watt, Paddy Murphy, Robert Crooks. Ryan Laverty, Corey McKillop Harry Connon, Jakub Kaczmarek, Lewis Devlin, Connor O’Hara, Paidin Mitchell, Conan McKeown, Sean McDermott, Fiontan Bradley,  Callum Hendren. 

Subs. Ciaran Logan, Sean O’brien, James Anderson, Jack Dowds, Orran Mayo, Nicholas Agnew, Callum King, Michael Connolly, Pearse Martin, Daniel Henry, Jack Patterson. Pearse McAuley. 

Referee: Gerard Dougan (Creggan)