Senior Reserve Hurling Cup
Dunloy Cuchullains 4-20
Loughgiel Shamrocks 2-14
Played before a large crowd, under near perfect conditions, at Pearse Park, Dunloy, the home side were quick out of the traps with a point from Francis McMullan within 60 seconds.
A quick response from the Shamrocks, saw them take the lead for the only time on thee minutes as Eoin McGarry and Donal McMullan fired over, but two quick fire goals from centre forward Francis McMullan and corner forward Ciaran Elliott gave them a lead the home side would not lose. Further points from Oisin McCamphill, Ciaran Elliott and a 10 minute spell saw Ryan Mort score 1-3 to extend the lead at the short whistle to 10 points. (3-10 to 0-09)
The second half started evenly, with two points from Rian Mort cancelled out by Loughgiel’s Eddie Smyth and Patrick Laverty. Suddenly the visitors began to get a bit more possession and following a point from play from John Francies Connolly a long delivery from centre back Tiago McGarry dropped in on the Dunloy ‘square’ and when it was batted out, Conor O’Mullan fired the rebound home to suddenly bring the game to life. The comeback appeared to have ground to a halt when the Shamrocks had a man red carded for a foul on Dunloy goalkeeper Eoghan Richmond and most people felt that was the end of the Loughgiel challenge. However as is so often the case the team with the extra man struggled for a spell and the men in red added a further 1-1, the goal coming from Ronan McCollum, to cut the gap back to three with ten minutes still to play.
However Dunloy steadied the ship and five points on the bounce were followed by a goal from Ciaran Elliott, who took advantage of a fumble by the Shamrocks goalkeeper to flick the ball home. Ronan McCollum pulled one back in injury time for the visitors but there was not stopping the Cuchullains at this stage and they pushed on to win in the end by 12.
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