Rasharkin made their way to the final of the Junior Hurling Championship when they beat Gort na Móna by four points in Saturday afternoon’s semi-final at Dreen. 2-08 from left half forward Conor McKeever set the Rasharkin men on the road to victory, the first goal coming directly from a sideline cut on eight minutes while the second one came on 22 and put them 2-11 to 1-7 ahead at half time. Two points by McKeever and one from Conor McKillop at the start of the second half increased the Dreen men’s lead to seven but two from Dessie McClean and one from Thomas McCaffrey began to close the gap.
Points from Donagh Quigg and Conor McKeever saw the home side pull clear again, but McCaffrey and McClean (2) kept the Turf Lodge men in touch. Two more by McKeever entering injury time all but sealed the win and though the Gorts centre back Neill Henry sent a long free over the bar for the visitors it was a case of too little too late as Rasharkin secured a final meeting with Armoy in two weeks’ time.
The final games in Group 2 of the IHC were quarter-finals with St. Paul’s taking on Tir na nOg at Shaw’s Road in a winner takes all encounter with the prize a place in the semi-finals in two weeks-time.
The home side with the wind in their favour made the running during the opening half and spurred on by a Caolan O’Duibhfinn goal in the 19th minute the red and white hoops led by 1-10 to 0-8 at the interval and looked on course for victory.
It was a different story after the break as the Whitehill men took control with Sean Duffin leading the way and a Darragh Fagan goal in the opening minute set them up for a dominant second half where they would outscore their opponents 2-11 to 0-4
O’Duibhfinn got St. Paul’s off to a good start with a point in the opening minute and would be a major player for the home side over the hour and his second in the 6th minute brought it all square after Emmet Murray and Ciaran Logan had briefly given the visitors the lead.
Caolan Crossan for St. Paul’s and Sean Duffin with his first of the afternoon for the Randalstown side tied the contest once more before St. Paul’ took control with points from Mark Munce and two from O’Duibhfinn to move three clear after 13 minutes.
Tir na nOg responded with points from Ciaran Logan, Ciaran O’Neill and a fine long range effort from Colm Duffin to draw level again but O’Duibhfinn’s goal in the 19th minute saw the home side finish the half on top.
The visitors replied with points from Darragh Fagan and a long range free from Sean Duffin but St. Paul’s responded with a similar effort from Stephen Rooney, two from O’Duibhfinn and another from Caolan Crossan to lead by five at the short whistle.
HT St. Paul’s 1-10 Tir na nOg 0-8
The game swung decisively in favour of the men in Blue on the restart with Darragh Fagan’s shot taking a deflection before ending in the net in the opening minute.
A long range effort from Aaron McNeilly and further points from Sean Duffin and a point from Oliver McAtamney saw the visitors hit the lead by the 5th minute and it was a lead they would hold until the end.
Caolan O’Duibhfinn tried to steady the ship with St. Paul’s first and second points of the half but it brought a further response from the Og’s with Duffin (0-2 f’s) and Daniel Martin with a great long range point moving their side further ahead.
Once again O’Duibhfinn tried to rally his troops with a pointed free and another from play but Sean Duffin responded with three converted frees on the bounce and Fagan added another with three minutes remaining.
There was still only three between the sides at this stage as the home side went in search of the goal that would put them back into contention but it would be the Whitehill side who would claim the final major as a long delivery into the danger area ended in the home nets with no one quite sure who got the final touch.
Daire Stevenson replied with a late consolation point for St. Paul’s but the Shaw’s Road side never recovered from that early second half onslaught but are still in the Intermediate Football competition where they will fancy their chances.
Tir na nOg now go forward to meet Oisin’s Glenariffe in the semi-final in two weeks-time while the other semi-final will feature Cloney Gaels and Carey Faughs as the Intermediate Hurling Championship continues to deliver.
St. Paul’s: 1 Chris Murray, 2 Ciaran O’Carroll, 3 Frankie Sewell, 4 Conall Duffy, 5 Daire Stevenson, 6 Stephen Rooney, 7 Liam Walsh, 8 Conall Finnegan, 9 Declan Quinn 10 Caolan O’Duibhfinn, 11 Caolan Crossan, 12 Declan Chapman, 13 Lorcan Phillips, 14 Mark Munce, 15 Thomas Duff
Tir na nOg: 1 Kevin Sheerin, 2 Brandon McLarnon, 3 Christy Sheerin, 4 Manus Smith, 5 Caoimhin Duffin, 6 Sean Duffin, 7 Daniel Martin, 8 Aaron McNeilly, 9 Josh Higgins, 10 Ciaran O’Neill, 11 Colm Duffin, 12 Ciaran Logan, 13 Emmet Murray, 14 Darragh Fagan, 15 Dara Martin
20 Oliver McAtamney
Referee: Piarias McCaffery (St. Gall’s)
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Last year’s beaten finalists, Glen Rovers Armoy, qualified for this years’ decider when they beat Davitt’s in a well contested semi-final in Armoy on Saturday.
The Armoy men were certainly made to work hard for their victory for though they ended up with a five point win, Davitt’s actually had more scores than their opponents and they can be thankful to the score snatching ability of full forward Trevor Linton who ended up with 2-6 to his name, a few of them right out of the top drawer.
The stocky full forward grabbed a goal in each half, his cuteness on the edge of the ‘square’ causing the Davitt’s defence no end of problems. Davitt’s too had their stars, and in wing forwards Marcas Toner and Don Wheelan they had two highly skilful hurlers who could mix it in any company. Whelan grabbed his team’s goal in the second half and Toner was denied on a couple of occasions by excellent saves by the Armoy goalkeeper Conor Devlin.
A goal in the ninth minute by Armoy centre forward Colin Lordan and another five minutes later from Thomas Burns put the north Antrim men in charge, but Davitt’s kept plugging away and two points apiece by Toner and Don Wheelan kept them in touch. However Linton’s goal in first half injury time was a bad blow to the visitors and at the break they were 3-4 to 0-8 in arrears.
Davitt’s closed the gap early in the second half when two points from Stephen McGivern and one from Don Wheelan replied to two by Thomas Burns, but a bit of ididivual brilliance from Linton on 49 minutes saw him grab his team’s fourth goal. Both team scored freely during the next twenty minutes, Linton flicking two over the goalkeepers head, but also over the crossbar, and PJ McBride, Emmet O’Hara and Linton again chipped in with one from a free. Davitt kept working to the end though and points from Toner, Whelan and McGivern hit points before Whelan grabbed an injury time goal.
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Whoever said that this Group 1 game was a dead rubber must have forgot to tell the protagonists, Glenarm and St. Gall’s as they served up a thoroughly entertaining game of fast flowing hurling at Feystown.
Going into this game visitors St. Gall’s were pointless so perhaps personal pride was the prize for a side who had competed well in their group games but just couldn’t get it over the line.
The home side started without a number of regulars who were absent for a various reasons but it was visitors St. Gall’s who came flying out of the start traps and threatened to over run their opponents.
They raced into a 3-9 to 0-3 lead after 20 minutes and at this stage the Feystown faithful would have been forgiven for heading home and when Rory Mulvenna kicked home from close range at the other end, it still looked a lost cause.
St. Gall’s pushed on to lead 3-16 to 1-4 at half time as the home side struggled to contain their pace and fluency as the Milltown Row men scored at will.
Fergus Donnelly fires home St. Gall’s second goal to put his side in command at Feystown
The flying Fergus Donnelly set the game alight with two goals in the opening minutes and a third from Sean McAreavey in the 20th minute and Marcus Donnelly, McAreavey, Oran McIlhatton, Mark Napier, Patrick Friel and Fergus Donnelly amongst the point scorers.
It looked like an exercise in damage limitation as Shane O’Neill’s emerged for the second half but whatever was said at the interval seemed to have lit their fire as they returned as a side barely recognisable.
Barry Hamill had been restored to his familiar place at the heart of the defence as Dan Black and John Scullion got them off the mark with early points and Conal Ward added another before Michael Furey pulled first time to send a ground shot to the net in the 6th minute.
St. Gall’s reacted with points from Jackson McGreevey, Fergus Donnelly and Sean McAreavey but there was a hunger from the Feystown side that had been missing in the first half.
Daniel Black led the way with a masterful display from mid-field and the points came thick and fast with Black and Niall McGarel leading the charge but it looked to no avail when they trailed by ten with 9 minutes remaining.
Shane O’Neill’s goal scorer, Michael Furey battles for possession with Ewan Walsh, St. Gall’s
Daniel Black followed two well struck points with his side’s third goal as he fired home from the penalty spot to cut the deficit to seven as the Feystown roar gathered volume but a couple of Mark Napier points for the visitors appeared to ease the pressure.
The momentum was very much with Shane O’Neill’s however as Ciaran Magill struck a fourth goal and McGarel fired a low shot through a packed goalmouth for their fifth with time almost up.
Too little-too late as St. Gall’s climbed above their hosts with a five point win as the news filtered through from Waterfoot that Carey Faughs had defeated Oisin’s to top the group and qualify for a semi-final meeting with Cloney Gaels while Oisin’s will meet Tir na nOg in the other semi-final.
Glenarm: 16 Liam Mulvenna, 26 Rory Mulvenna, 3 Barry Hamill, 4 John Scullion, 5 Aidan Scullion, 7 Declan McDermott, 8 Kieran O’Boyle, 9 Daniel Black, 11 Ciaran Magill, 14 Niall McGarel, 18 Matthew Black, 20 Sean O’Hare, 21 Michael Furey, 22 KLieran O’Boyle, 24 Padraig McDermott,
St. Gall’s: 1 Kurtis McGreevey, 2 Daniel Churchill, 3 Niall O’Neill, 4 Ewan Walsh, 5 Gairech MacAdhaim 6 Tomas O’Ciaran, 7 Ryan Irvine, 8 Jackson McGreevey, 9 Oran McIlhatton, 10 Patrick Friel, 11 Cormac Sheehan, 12 Marcus Donnelly, 11 Marcus Donnelly, 12 Ronan Crossen, 13 Fergus Donnelly 14 Sean McAreavey, 15 Mark Napier,
Referee: Fionntan McCotter (Sarsfields)
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A free flowing St John’s side ran up an impressive total of 30 points as they saw off the challenge of Naomh Eanna with a bit to spare at Pairc Rossa on Saturday, and in doing so set up a mouth-watering semi-final with county champions Cushendall in two weeks’ time.
On top from the first minute the Corrigan Park side were impressive against their Glengormley opponents who found it really hard to get to the pace of the game, struggling to match the Johnnies intensity. The West Belfast side started like a steam train, firing over from all angles, Conor Johnston and Oisin McManus playing starring roles, ‘Jonty’ ending with eight from play and free taker McManus with nine overall, four of them from play.
A quick start saw the wind assisted Johnnies set the scoreboard in motion in the opening minute with Oisin Donnelly firing over and the scores followed from Bohill, Shannon (2) and Johnston as the gap began to widen. Cormac Jennings got Naomh Eanna on the scoreboard and Ciaran McAlister added one from play, but a real barrage of scores from the Corrigan Park outfit saw them his eight without reply to open a twelve point gap.
St Enda’s kept battling though and they got their reward when corner forward Conor Bradley fired to the net late in the first half after good approach work by McAlister. However St John’s hit back with four more before the break to lead by 0-18 to 1-05 by the time match referee Barry Winters sounded the half time whistle.
Naomh Eanna made a great start to the second half and with Niall O’Connor leading the line they hit the first four scores of the second half, O’Connor accounting for three of them and Ruairi Donaghy one. Shea Shannon and Conor Johnston got the Johnnies going again, but Naomh Eanna were much more competitive now and with the gap down to eight entering the final ten minutes.
When John McGoldrick grabbed his team’s team’s second goal and Joe Maskey added a point to gap was down to just four and there was real hope for Naomh Eanna, but St John’s responded well to the danger with Johnston, Dudley and the accurate McManus among the scorers as they pulled away again to win by nine.
ST JOHN’S: S Doherty; S Wilson, Ciaran Johnston, J Bohill; R McNulty, P McCallin, C Morgan; A Bradley, M Dudley (0-4); O Donnelly (0-1), Conor Johnston (0-8); C Bohill (0-3); D Carson, S Shannon (0-4, 2f, 1 65), O MacManus (0-9, 4f, 1 65). Subs: M Bradley (0-1) for D Carson (40), R Galbraith for A Bradley (48), D McGuinness for O Donnelly (58), S Tierney for M Dudley (60+2)
NAOMH ÉANNA: M Curran; D Maguire, M McGibbon, R Eager; E Conlon (0-2), R Donaghy (0-2), R Diamond; C O’Connor, C McAllister (0-1); L O’Connor, Cormac Jennings (0-2, 1f), E O’Connor; N O’Connor (0-6, 2f, 1 65), J Maskey (0-1), C Bradley (1-0). Subs: J McGoldrick (1-1) for C O’Connor (40), P Curran for C Bradley (41), Cillian Jennings for E O’Connor (42)
