Danske Bank Nolan Cup – U19 Football
Dominican College Coleraine 1-13 | St Patrick’s Academy Lisburn 0-07 Venue: The Cricky, Cliftonville
Dominican College Coleraine secured the Danske Bank Nolan Cup with a commanding victory over St Patrick’s Academy Lisburn at The Cricky, Cliftonville Road, Belfast
Driven by a standout performance from their number six, Duffy Crocker, Dominican built an unassailable first-half lead and showed great resilience to weather a second-half fightback from St Pat’s.
Dominican Dominance
The match opened with a flurry of action. St Pat’s got on the board early, with Ronan Arthurs finishing a well-worked team move to point from play just 90 seconds in. However, Dominican quickly responded with a point from play by their star man, Duffy Crocker, setting the tone for the rest of the half.
Dominican capitalized on a mistake in the Lisburn defense—a poor backpass to the goalkeeper—which allowed Conor Love to easily slot over a point from a free. Under severe pressure, Oscar Leitch added a great individual point on the 12-minute mark.
From there, Dominican’s midfield took absolute control, stifling St Pat’s and preventing them from escaping their own half. Duffy Crocker was instrumental, hitting an incredible two-pointer from play at 14.5 minutes. Conor Love kept the scoreboard ticking with consecutive points from frees at 17 and 18 minutes.
Crocker was relentless, adding a second two-pointer from play on 19 minutes. St Pat’s managed a brief reprieve with a great point from play by Dara Campbell, but Dominican had the final say of the half. Tiarnan Andrews Fryer finished a superb team move on the stroke of halftime, leaving Lisburn paying the price for conceding too many frees.
Half-time Score: Dominican College 0-10 | St Pat’s Lisburn 0-01
Lisburn’s Comeback & Dominican’s Killer Blow
St Pat’s emerged from the dressing room with renewed purpose. Dara Campbell converted a free just 30 seconds after the restart. However, their momentum took a hit when Ronan Arthurs was shown a black card, reducing them to 14 men for a 10-minute spell.
Despite the numerical disadvantage, St Pat’s showed immense fighting spirit. Darragh Patterson hit a fantastic individual point under pressure at 5 minutes, followed by a free from Eoin Morris at 7.5 minutes to claw back into the game.
Dominican steadied the ship on 11 minutes with a great individual point from play by Conor Love. Shortly after, Lisburn returned to their full complement of 15 players as Arthurs re-entered the fray. Duffy Crocker then effectively shut the door on the comeback, converting a crucial two-pointer from a free on 14 minutes.
St Pat’s continued to battle hard. Dara Campbell pointed from a free at 18 minutes, and Eoin Morris added two more frees at 21.5 and 24.5 minutes. The Dominican goalkeeper also had to remain alert, pulling off a vital save on 22 minutes to deny Lisburn any hope of a late goal.
With St Pat’s pushing forward, Dominican struck the final, decisive blow. On 30 minutes, Oscar Leitch broke away to score a brilliant goal from play, calling game, set, and match for the Coleraine side and sealing the Nolan Cup title in style.
16 Dylan Corbett 2 Thomas Campbell, 3 Niall McGarry, 4 Joe Marshall, 5 Enda Lafferty, 6 Duffy Crocker 7 Hugh Patrick Donaghy, 8 Dara Hughes, 9 Tiarnan Andrews Fryer, 10 Charles Molyneaux, 11 Conor Love, 12 Patrick McKinley, 13 Fergal Murray, 14 Oscar Leitch, Subs
15 Rohan Beckett, 17 Euan Loughrey, 18 Noah Douglas, and 19 Emmet McAuley.
St Patrick’s Academy, Lisburn
Subs –
Match referee – Brendan Totten (Antrim)
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