Antrim Camogie Junior A Championship
Loughgiel 3:15 Cushendall 2:05
Match report and photos from Michael Corcoran at Fr. Healy Park, Loughgiel
You’d be hard pressed to find a better game of camogie to warm up gathering crowds at Fr. Healy Park for the triple header of Jnr A Camogie, Senior camogie and Senior hurling. Loughgiel and Cushendall battled out their round three game in the Junior A Championship with a stiff breeze running square across the pitch with occasional sheets of rain that weren’t heavy, more of a squinting nuisance.
Match referee, Ryan Magee, rolled in sharp at the top of the hour and an alert Aoife McMullan rolled the sliotar onto her stick and advanced the Shamrocks with a solo run that found the stick of Alana McKendry and wasted no time in hitting the catch net over the bar to open Loughgiel’s scoring account in under a minute.
Cushendall eased into the game from a dead ball that was accurately placed by Ellie Jo Butler over Loughgiel’s bar. Both sides would trade points when Loughgiel’s Catherine McGarry rushed into the large rectangle, choosing to point when arguably the shot to goal was waiting. Loughgiel would move up the scoreboard by another point that had all the hallmarks of a senior passage of play when Catherine Connolly and Charlie McCarry moved the sliotar around in a 1-2-1 move, leaving McCarry with a simple flick of the stick to strike for point number five.
An on-form McCarry would torment the catch net over the next twelve minutes with four points, two from play, before Cushendall’s Chloe McAuley managed to get in behind Loughgiel’s defence for a competent pull to raise the green flag at twenty four minutes gone. Despite the goal, a buoyant ‘Dall side could only watch Loughgiel hit back with a recycled puck out as Eva McGarry landed the sliotar high over the bar. Magee glanced at the watch and called for the break with little added time.
Loughgiel’s Charley McCarry got things underway for the Shamrocks with an opening point in the second half but Cushendall’s Ellie Jo Butler would take some of the limelight with a rapid response that found the back of Loughgiel’s net. With scores standing Loughgiel 0-11 Cushendall 2-02, three points of a difference was a hopeful reach for the ‘Dall but this is where the Shamrock’s hit the turbo. Charley McCarry would strike into the heart of the catch net followed by two more goals, the first from Catherine McGarry and the second from Alana McKendry. Cushendall could only reply with a point from Naoise McDonnell before Charley McCarry found the sliotar in her hand, pirouetting on a sixpence, hit the back of the goals with a stinging sliotar.
With ten minutes left on the clock, Cushendall couldn’t find the opportunities and faded under the task of closing the gap of fourteen points. The ‘Dall would close their account with two final points from Anna Birt and Naoise McDonnell before Loughgiel’s Erin McMullan closed out the game with a final point.
If it wasn’t for the superb performance from Cushendall’s goalkeeper, Ellen McAlister, the Shamrock’s could have been nine goals up after sixty minutes. Six saves from McAlister on the goal line would deny the Shamrocks from running a goal festival. Also making life hard for Loughgiel was Cushendall’s centre full back, Clódagh McAllister. McAllister held her quarter under pressure from Loughgiel’s advances and it took the thrilling performance from Charley McCarry to get the better of the full back line.
Loughgiel now advance into a semi final with a game from a group one team. The name of their opposition will be known whenever all the results from Saturday’s games come in.
You can see more photos from today’s Junior A game here…
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Loughgiel Starters and scorers
Eimear McGivern, Grace McLean, Ciara Connolly, Aoife Cunningham, Caitie McCaughan, Anna McKillen, Caoimhe McGarry, Kathryn Glackin, Aoife McMullan, Catherine Connolly, Alana McKendry 1-01, Eva McGarry 0-01, Róise McGarry, Charley McCarry 1-09 (3f), Catherine McGarry 1-02
Erin McMullan 0-02
Cushendall Starters and scorers
Ellen McAlister, Cliodhna O’Hara, Clódagh McAllister, Caoimhe Morgan, Molly McNeil, Caragh McKinley, Rose Black, Orla McKenna, Naoise McDonnell, Alex Gunn 0-03 (1f, 1×45), Ellie Jo Butler, Clare Stewart 1-01, Laoiseach McNaughton, Chloe McAuley 1-00, Erin Delargy
Anna Birt 0-01