Danske Bank Mageean Cup
Cross & Passion Ballycastle 2-13 St Pat’s Maghera 0-23
Mageean Cup holders St Pat’s Maghera laid down a marker today in Ballycastle when they beat Cross & Passion by 4 points in their opening round-robin game at Pairc MacUílín.
Despite CPC enjoying a dominant opening quarter and striking for the game’s only goal, a fightback led by Maghera centre-forward PJ Glover completely shifted the momentum before the short whistle.
The Ballycastle lads opened the scoring in the third minute Cathair McCloskey fired over from a narrow angle on the left. St Pat’s responded quickly with a long distance strike from right half forward Sean O’Kane, but then had their best spell of the game. CPC’s Joe Deery converted a free on five minutes, and followed it up a minute later with a fine score from play, striking from 30 yards out on the right wing. Patrick Campbell then added his name to the scoresheet from play. When the CPC number 8 landed a superb long-range effort on 10 minutes, and their Joe Deery swung over a great point from out in the corner shortly after, CPC were flying with a commanding 0-6 to 0-2 advantage.
St Pat’s finally broke the Ballycastle momentum when Daire McKaigue pointed on 12 minutes to make it 0-6 to 0-3. PJ Glover, leading the line brilliantly for Maghera at number 11, then hit a good distance point on the quarter-hour mark.
However, CPC looked to have firmly reasserted their dominance on 18 minutes when Peter Lavery found space on the left side of the posts and rattled the net, giving the home side a 1-6 to 0-3 cushion.
Remarkably, CPC would only score once more in the half as St Patrick’s took complete control. Glover answered the goal almost immediately with a 19th-minute free. Then, on 21 minutes, Maghera’s Sean O’Kane produced one of the moments of the half—picking up the ball deep in his own half, executing a brilliant solo run along the 45-meter line, and firing over from distance.
From there, it was the PJ Glover show. The Maghera centre-forward struck a great point from distance on 24 minutes, which was followed 60 seconds later by an excellent score from the 45-meter line by their full-forward Fionn Cartin. Glover then hit three consecutive points on 26, 28 (a 20-meter free), and 29 minutes to completely flip the scoreboard and put St Pat’s in front.
The highlight of the comeback arrived on 30 minutes. A long delivery out of defence by Maghera’s number 6 was brilliantly claimed out in front by their number 15, who turned sharply and fired over for arguably the score of the day.
CPC finally managed to halt the unanswered eight-point onslaught deep in stoppage time when their Joe Deery converted a much-needed free. It leaves the game delicately poised at the break, with St Patrick’s Maghera taking a one-point advantage into the changing rooms.
Half-Time: CPC 1-7 | St Patrick’s Maghera 0-11
CPC drew level early in the third quarter and it was nip and tuck for a while but the Derry school opened up a four point gap going into the final quarter. A goal from Patrick Campbell after he pulled a ground shot to the St Pat’s net gave CPC renewed hope but St Pat’s dominated the final minutes and two more points from Glover and one from McKaigue sealed the win.
St Patrick’s: PJ Glover 0-11, 6fs, S O’Kane 0-4, O Burke 0-3, F Carton, PP Ó Duibhne, O O’Neill, U McCloskey and D McKaigue 0-1 each
Cross & Passion: P Laverty and P Campbell 1-1each , J Deery 0-8, 7fs, C McAuley, D Kinney and J óg Darragh 0-1 each.
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