Masita Paddy Buggy All-Ireland hurling semi-final
Cross & Passion Ballycastle 2-23 Clonmel CBS High School 1-17
Cross & Passion College bridged a ten year gap when they booked their place in the Masita Paddy Buggy fCup inal at UCD, Dublin on Saturday, at the expense of Munster champions Clonmel High School. The Ballycastle college turned on the style with a series of outrageous scores throughout the game to set up a final meeting with Oranmore of Galway on March 15th…. probably at Abbotstown.
CPC were in control of the game for most of the hour, apart from a brief spell midway through the first half when Clonmel twice got their noses in front and at this stage of the game it looked like the Tipperary boys were getting on top. However the second quarter belonged to the Antrim men who produced a stunning second quarter which brought them from a point down to seven up by the time the referee bblew the half time whistle.
Oisin McCallin started the comeback with two points inside a minute, the first from out on the left wing, and the second from wide on the right. The excellent Aaron Cagney and Mickey McGuire came back with two for the ‘High School’ at the other end to just edge their team back in front, but a superbly taken goal from CPC full forward Roan McGarry from a seemingly impossible angle got the Ulster champions back in front and they finished the half with a series of spectacular point, three of them inside a minute, to finish the half with a 1-13 to 0-09 lead.
CPC started the second half as they finished the first and four points without reply, two of them from Roan McGarry and one each from Cadhan Crawford and ‘Rosie’Fitgerald had the gap out to eleven.
Clonmel hit back with four of their own, two of them from McGuire frees and one each from Conal Morrison and Finn Napier to bring the gap back to seven, just as it had been at half-time. The four score sequence continued with another gem of a score from McCallin, one from Paudie Martin and two from the bustling centre forward Conor Donnelly who burst through to split the post twice in as many minutes.
There was a warning sign that the Clonmel boys were far from finished when goalkeeper Anthony Mullan was forced to make a brilliant close range save and when David McSweeney and Aaron Cagney came back with points you felt the Munster champions were still very much in the game. When midfielder Morrison got through for a well taken goal soon afterwards the gap was down to five and for spell the CPC supporters were on edge. It took some heroics from Liam Glackin and co at the back to prevent the gap from closing further, but when Paudie Martin popped over another point the winners hit their stride once again.
Roan McGarry with two more and substitute Conan Johnston all but sealed the win before Oisin McCamphill put the icing on the cake with and outrageous piece of skill which saw him flick the ball from an attempted clearance by the Clonmel goalkeeper, controlling it on his hurl before firing to the net…a score for the ages!
All eyes turn towards the March 15th final against Oranmore of Galway, but in the meantime the majority of the team have a lot of hurling still to do, with nine of them on the Antrim Under 20 squad to face Down in the Ulster decider and three in action at 12 noon today in the Danny McNaughton Memorial Cup final against the same opposition.
CPC: Anthony Mullan, Reece Cunning, Cian Baudant, Eunan Johnston, Darragh Donnelly, Liam Glackin (c), Arden Kelly, Darragh Kinney, Ronan FItzgerald, Niall McClean, Conor Donnelly, Paudie Martin, Oisin McCallin, Roan McGarry, Cadhan Craword.
Subs – Conan Johnston
Scorers – R McGarry 1-8, 0-2 frees, O McCallin 1-5, P Martin 0-4, 2 frees, C Donnelly 0-3, C Crawford 0-2, R Fitzgerald 0-1
Clonmel: H Lawlor 1-2, Aaron Cagney 0-12, 10 frees, Connal Morrison 1-0, B Roche 0-2, 1 free, M Bates 0-1
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