Danske Bak D’Alton Cup quarter final at Colaiste Feirste
St Louis Ballymena 5-12 St Coleman’s Newry 4-12
St Louis Ballymena booked their place in the D’Alton Cup semi-final after a thrilling 5-12 to 4-12 victory over St Colman’s Newry.
An explosive opening from the Ballymena side laid the foundation for victory. Captain Conan McKeever fired to the net inside the opening 60 seconds and combined with Oisín Analychi as St Louis raced into an early four-point lead.
McKeever then added a free before sending Oscar Bradley through for St Louis’ second goal. St Colman’s opened their account through Aidan Quinn after seven minutes, but points from Odhrán Cassidy, McKeever and Analychi quickly stretched the Antrim side’s lead to ten.
Quinn missed a major opportunity when he blasted over with the goal at his mercy, and St Louis punished the miss immediately by firing home their third goal to lead 3-6 to 0-2 after 17 minutes.
St Colman’s responded strongly. Goalkeeper PJ Marron made an important save, but Jake Lennon and Quinn struck goals in quick succession to ignite the Newry side’s comeback.
Points from Bradley and Kiran Jayaprakash steadied St Louis before Keevan Kennedy found the net for St Colman’s, the big full forward bursting through the middle before blasting an unstopable shot to the St Louis net before Lennon added a free to leave the half-time score 3-9 to 3-4.
You felt at half time that a five point lead would not be enough but despite playing against a strong wind in the second half, St Louis struck early when substitute Cayden McGuckian soloed through and finished to the net.
Lennon opened St Colman’s second-half scoring with a free before Daniel McCartan struck their fourth goal to cut the gap to three. Quinn and Jayaprakash traded scores before St Colman’s seized the momentum. McCartan pointed and Lennon added further scores to bring the sides level with ten minutes remaining.
Lennon then edged St Colman’s in front for the first time, but St Louis responded immediately to level matters.
The decisive moment came in the 53rd minute when midfielder Oisín Analychi powered through the defence and finished to the net to restore a three-point lead and the gap was out to four when McGuckian added a point soon afterwards.
St Louis held firm in the closing stages, conceding only a late Lennon free as they secured a memorable win, their fourth victory in a row in this their first year in the D’Alton Cup.
The Ballymena school now face St Malachy’s, Castlewellan in next Friday’s Dalton Cup semi-final. The sides previously met in the group stage, with Castlewellan winning 5-4 to 2-4.
St Louis Starting 15
- PJ Marron
- Lir Hamill
- Lir Hodkinson
- Charlie O’Brien
- Mark Kirby
- Joseph Killough
- Nicholas McCrory
- Conan McKeever
- Oisín Analychi
- Cahan O’Kane
- Kiran Jayaprakash
- Ronan Laverty
- Oscar Bradley
- Odhran Cassidy
- Alfie Gordon
St Colman’s College Starting 15
- Sean Daly
- Cillian Oreilly
- Patrick Fegan
- Dominic McGrath
- Conor Mallet
- Eoin Mackin
- Daniel McCartan
- James Morgan
- Aaron Mohan
- Fionn McKeever
- Ryan Sands
- Jake Lennon
- Peter Fegan
- Keevan Kennedy
- Aidan Quinn
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