Antrim Senior Hurling League- Division On
Ballycastle 3-19 St John’s 0-18
Ballycastle recovered from a slow start to get the better of league leaders St John’s in Sunday’s Antrim Senior Hurling League game at Pairc MacUilin. The Corrigan Park men wee 0-07 to 0-02 ahead after just seven minutes, but once they got going the men from the Town reeled their visitors in and three goals in the second quarter saw them go in at the break with a 3-12 to 0-12 lead.
The second half was much more even, and lower scoring but Ballycastle held their own during that period and ended up winning by ten.
St John’s, who were short a few regulars, started strongly and with Oisin McManus and Shea Shannon leading the line they hit the first two points of the game. Niall McKenna pulled one back on two minutes but the visitors pushed on and points from Aaron Bradley., Oisin McManus and Michial Dudley found the target to stretch the gap to four. McKenna came back with one from play for the Town, but Shannon and McManus stretched the lead to five by the ninth minute. As the half progressed Ballycastle started to find their range and three in a row from Conor Donnelly set them on a run and they had it back to a point when the game really changed.
On 22 minutes McKenna set up Conor Donnelly for a goal and two minutes later Darragh Donnelly added another major with a great finish. Oisin McManus hit three points for the Johnnies but the home team finished the half with goal number three, this time from veteran full forward Neal McAuley to give his team a 3-12 to 0-12 half time lead
McAuley increased the lead to ten in the first minute of the second but McManus replied right away for the visitors. The Corrigan Park side had a chance to get back into it when they were awarded a penalty in the 36th minute, but McManus was off target and two long range points from Seamus McAuley had the gap out to eleven at one point. That gave the home side enough breathing room and they kept answering each St John’s point to seal the win.
Despite the defeat St John’s still hold on to top spot, though Rossa, Dunloy and Loughgiel all have a game in hand on them and on Ballycastle. They face West Belfast rivals Rossa at Corrigan next time out on Wednesday 25th June in what should be a very interesting contest.
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