Danske Bank Mageean Cup semi-final

St Louis Ballymena 1-22 St Patrick’s Maghera 2-10

St Louis Ballymena qualified for their first Mageean final since 2015 when they beat St Pat’s Maghera in Wednesday’s semi-final at Ahoghill. With All Saints player Aodhán McGarry leading the line the Ballymena school were on top for most of the game against a Maghera side who were short a couple of regulars because of illness.

McGarry scored 0-13 overall, his free taking almost perfect as he sent over 0-11 from 12 attempts, while he also added 0-2 from play in a brilliant all round display.

Fionn McEldowney, who was always prominent for the Maghera side, opened the scoring with a point in the third minute, but St Louis were soon level and they went on to dominate the opening half. The struck a telling blow in the tenth minute when corner forward Padraig Martin fired home a rebound after St Pat’s keeper Conor Melaugh had done well to stop a shot from right half forward Jack McCloskey. With McGarry sending over a series of excellent points from frees St Louis pushed on and appeared to be comfortable when they went in at half time leading by 1-10 to 0-5.

St Louis looked a little complacent as the second half got underway but St Pat’s were up for the fight and each time Aodhán McGarry pointed the Derry boys came back with one of their own. When Fionn McEldowney got through for a St Pat’s goal the gap was suddenly down to five, and there were a few anxious minutes for the St Louis supporters, but the Ballymena school reacted well as the sent over six points without reply, five from McGarry and one from Ronan McCollum, to all but seal the win.  

St Pat’s kept battling and a late goal which appeared to go all the way to the net from an Eoin Scullion 65, cut the gap back to seven, but again St Louis found an answer and they hit back to win by nine to set up a final meeting on Friday week with the winners of Thursday’s second semi-final between CPC and St Killian’s

St Louis: Caolán McFerran, Senan O’Boyle, Piaras Patterson, Luke McFerran, Kevin O’Boyle (0-1), Darragh Patterson, Francis McMullan, Joe McCormick (0-2), Tom McFerran (0-1), Darragh Martin, Aodhán McGarry (0-13, 11 frees), Jack McCloskey (0-3), Ronan McCollum (0-1), Seán óg Blaney, Padraig Martin (1-1).
Subs: Ryan O’Boyle for S Blaney (ht), Donal McMullan for L McFerran (49), Barry McCloskey for P Martin (54).

St Patrick’s: C Melaugh, R McGarvey, M McKenna, O McNicholl, A McLaughlin, E Scullion (1-1, frees), C McKaigue (0-1), PJ O’Kane, P McGuckian, C Gaile, F McEldowney (1-1), C Scullion, C Downey (0-7, frees), C Bradley, L Collins.
Subs: Ben Kearney for C Bradley (35), Ryan O’Kane for L Collins (53).

Referee: B Toland (Lámh Dhearg)

Danske Bank MacNamee Cup final

St Patrick’s Maghera 9-10 Cross & Passion Ballycastle 1-8

Towering full forward Sean O’Hara was in unstoppable form at Ahoghill on Wednesday afternoon as he led St Pat’t Maghera to victory over Cross & Passion College, Ballycastle in the final of the McNamee Cup. The Creggan teenager scored and amazing 5 goals and 3 points as the Derry college scored a runaway 9-10 to 1-8 win over the their north Antrim rivals

CPC had started well and after an early goal by O’Hara, the Ballycastle boys played their way into the game with a goal from Paudie O’Kane and some great points from Charlie McAuley put them ahead by 1-4 to 1-2 after 15 minutes.

St Pat’s hit back with a Joe Conway goal before half-time and when O’Hara kicked a rebound to the net, the Maghera school were 3-3 to 1-5 in front by the time Paddy Tomilty blew the half time whistle.

After the change of ends St Pat’s took control and with O’Hara causing no end of problems for the CPC the scores came thick and fast, 4-2 of them from O’Haram while Joe Conway and Ronan McLoughlin also grabbed goals.

Scorers:

Maghera: S O’Hara (5-3), J Conway (2-1), R O’Loughlin (2-0), D Collins (0-4, 0-2 free), O Burke (0-1), C O’Donnell (0-1)

CPC: P O’Kane (1-0), C McAuley (0-6, 0-5 frees), J Deery (0-1), R McGarry (0-1)

Maghera:

Johnny McKenna, James Ward, Dara McKaigue, Dara McKenna, Conan Boyle, Dan McEldowney, Sionan McCormick, Don Mulholland, Karl Friel, Cahor McDonnell, Ronan O’Loughlin, Donncha Collins,Joseph Conway, Sean O’Hara, Oisin Burke

Subs:

Fionn Wallace for O Burke (42), Sean McPeake for R O’Loughlin (49), Seamus Woulahan for J Ward (49), Davin Hasson for C McDonnell (53)

CPC:

Cormac Bailey, Sean McHenry, Joseph Kinney, Aaron Richmond, Aaron Gillan, Oran Baudant, Peter Laverty, Cormac Scanlon, Matthew Donnelly, Patrick Campbell, Charlie McAuley, Joe Derry, Padai O’Kane, Dan Lynn, Rónán Elliott.

Subs:

Ronan McGarry  Shea  Casey for A Richmond (45)

Referee: P Tumelty (Lámh Dhearg)

Danske Bank Leonard Cup semi-final

Cross & Passion Ballycastle 3-5 St Killian’s Garron Tower 1-5

WHEN these teams met in last year’s Danske Bank Gallagher Cup final, Cross & Passion Ballycastle were comfortable winners. They won again on Tuesday in Cushendun, but it was a less than convincing performance this time and one that will need to improve ahead of Friday’s final (Ballymena, 1.30pm) against St Patrick’s Maghera.

After an initial flurry from St Killian’s, CPC dominated the first half, but despite an opportunist goal from Dara Kinney in the 12^th minute, only led by 1-4 to 0-2 at the break. Oisín Connolly hit three points from play and, along with Ashton McGarry, dominated the middle third of the pitch.

St Killian’s lifted their game after the break, but didn’t score until Ciarán McCann fired in a goal in the 42^nd minute to close the gap to two points. Ballycastle responded quite quickly with a goal from Cadhan Crawford and then sub Conor Anderson, on the pitch just two minutes, lifted the roof of the Garron Tower net from 20 metres.

That effectively was game over, although St Killian’s added three late points to make the score-line a little more respectable from their point of view.

CPC: C Magee, P McCaughan, R McQuaid, E Johnston, L Smyth, A McGarry, L Magee, O Connolly (0-3), L McGarry, E McKendry, C Johnson, L McConville (0-1), O McCallin, D Kinney (1-1), C Crawford (1-0)

Subs: R McGilligan for L McConville (40), C Anderson (1-0) for R McGilligan (48), D Henry for O McCallin (58), C McCullagh for L Magee (60 +2)

St Killian’s: B Duncan, N Rogers, C McLoughlin, C McAlister, P Morgan, Conor McCann, S McQuillan, L McQuillan, O Gillan, C McCambridge (0-1), C Scullion, D McNaughton (0-1), N McLaughlin, C McIntosh (0-3, 2 frees), Ciarán McCann (1-0)

Subs: C Graham for L McQuillan (36), C Leech for C Scullion (54), L Mitchell for N McLaughlin (55).

Referee: P Tumelty (Lámh Dhearg)