Sport

St Patrick's, Maghera thrash MacRory Cup holders St Mary's, Magherafelt in MacCormack Cup

St Patrick’s performance against St Mary’s, Magherafelt yesterday evening put aside any doubts over the side’s ability to take this year’s Danske Bank MacCormack Cup Picture: Mary K Burke
St Patrick’s performance against St Mary’s, Magherafelt yesterday evening put aside any doubts over the side’s ability to take this year’s Danske Bank MacCormack Cup Picture: Mary K Burke St Patrick’s performance against St Mary’s, Magherafelt yesterday evening put aside any doubts over the side’s ability to take this year’s Danske Bank MacCormack Cup Picture: Mary K Burke

Danske Bank MacCormack Cup semi-finals

St Patrick’s, Maghera 3-12 St Mary’s, Magherafelt 1-5

LORCAN McWilliams continued his amazing November scoring blitz in Ballinderry yesterday evening to take St Patrick’s, Maghera clear of Danske Bank MacRory Cup holders St Mary’s, Magherafelt and put aside any doubts about which was the team to avoid in this season’s competition.

McWilliams has now scored 4-32 in the four games that Maghera has played, an amazing average of 1-8 per start.

He opened the scoring in this derby semi-final but the next score came in the 12th minute from St Mary’s full-back Giussippi Lupari bombing upfield to fire to the Maghera net.

That score, however, seemed to ignite the Maghera challenge and they went on to hit 2-7 to a single pointed free in response from Daniel Bradley.

McWilliams and Richie Mullan pointed to level the sides before a good move up the right-hand side in the 19th minute was shifted across the centre for McWilliams to take at pace and fire home.

However, the game really turned against Magherafelt in the five minutes before the break as McWilliams’s quick thinking from a close-in free caught St Mary’s napping with a rasping drive to the top corner of the net.

He then brought his tally for the game to 2-3 as he and Fiontan Bradley finished the first half scoring at 2-8 to 1-1.

Unsurprisingly the Kilrea man was first on the score-sheet for the second half, a 36th minute free into the breeze.

However, neither team made any real headway for the first 18 minutes of the second half, sharing six points between them, until in the 49th minute when Eunan Mulholland was on the end of another good Maghera move up the left. The sub soloed 15 metres before lashing the ball to the net at the near post.

Another emphatic marker laid down by Maghera and, not for the first time, Lorcan McWilliams’s name on everyone’s lips.

St Patrick’s, Maghera: L McWilliams (2-6, 1-3 frees), E Mulholland (1-0), F Bradley (0-3), R Mullan (0-1), J McAtamney (0-1), D McLaughlin (0-1)

St Mary’s, Magherafelt: G Lupari (1-0), D Bradley (0-3 frees), C O’Neill (0-1), E McElhinnon (0-1).

St Ronan’s, Lurgan 3-10 St Paul’s, Bessbrook 1-8

HOLDERS St Ronan’s, Lurgan are also back in the final after dominating this semi-final tie in the Athletic Grounds in Armagh yesterday evening.

They twice pulled four points clear only for St Paul’s, Bessbrook to pull themselves back level. However, when Tiarnan Kelly’s break and off-load to Ruairí McConville ended low in the Bessbrook net in the 44th minute, St Ronan’s were again four points to the good – and this time they pushed on to double that difference during the final quarter.

After Oisin Smyth’s opening two points were pulled back by Seamus Loughran and Oran Kearins frees, the home side built up a 0-6 to 0-2 lead with points from McConville, Kelly, Monteiro and Meehan before the 20th minute.

St Paul’s stopped the rot with four points without reply before the break from Niall Quinn, Jack Cunningham, Seamus Loughran and Ryan Connolly.

However, St Ronan’s came out strongly for the second half and Jamie Haughey blazed down the field from half-back to fire home after 70 seconds with Josh Megoran adding a point.

Although a point from Niall Quinn and then a goal from Ryan Hughes brought the sides level once more at 1-7 each, St Paul’s couldn’t get a lead score to put any pressure on the north Armagh outfit.

Then came the McConville goal and St Ronan’s were in charge again, finishing their opponents off in the 57th minute when a long through ball was brilliantly fielded by Tiarnan Kelly and belted low into the net for a third Lurgan goal.

St Ronan’s, Lurgan: T Kelly (1-2, 0-1 free), R McConville (1-1), J Haughey (1-0), O Smyth (0-3), R Meehan (0-2, 0-1 free), L Monteiro (0-1), J Megoran (0-1)

St Paul’s, Bessbrook: R Hughes (1-0), S Loughran (0-2 frees), N Quinn (0-2), Jack Cunningham (0-2), O Kearins (0-1 free), R Connolly (0-1)

Danske Bank MacRory Cup play-offs

St Patrick’s, Armagh 6-9 Abbey CBS 1-14

St Patrick’s, Cavan 2-13 St Mary’s CBGS, Belfast 1-4

THERE are times in games that you need a bit of luck and it’s fair to say that neither of the teams that departed the Danske Bank MacRory Cup in play-offs yesterday got much of a rub of the green.

Abbey CBS hit the first two points of their game in Pearse Óg Park through Billy Campbell and Eoin Carr, but were still 2-3 to 0-3 down after 10 minutes’ play with Ben Toal and Michael McGleenan finding the net.

Still, Abbey battled back with the next five scores, including three from Ruairí McCormick, to narrow the deficit to 2-3 to 0-8. Then Toal struck again, followed soon after by Justin Kieran and Armagh led by 4-5 to 0-10 after an eventful first half.

Lorcan Forde’s goal again pulled the Abbey back a little at 4-6 to 1-11, but immediately Dillon Horsfield hit back with Armagh’s fifth goal and soon after Michael Conroy made it six as St Patrick’s lined up the other Newry school, St Colman’s, in a quarter-final play-off in January.

Meanwhile, things began to spiral out of the control of St Mary’s CBGS during the third quarter of their play-off against St Patrick’s, Cavan in Killygarry.

Despite a goal from Cian McGovern in the 15th minute, and a fair bit of Cavan dominance in the opening half, a huge shift from Eoin McMenamin, Conal Fagan and Niall Ward was keeping St Mary’s in contention at the break, trailing by 1-5 to 0-4.

Cavan tagged on a few points on the re-start but McMenamin hit back with a goal for St Mary’s before the game got away from them with Ward picking up a black card, quickly followed by reds for Matthew Mallon and Paddy Doyle. In the middle of this McMenamin smashed a shot off the crossbar and, to add salt to the wounds, Dominic McEnhill then blazed a 47th minute penalty word of the target.

A goal would have closed the game to three points, 1-10 to 2-4, but sub Jack Trainor killed off any remaining hope the 13 men had with a second Cavan goal.

Trainor, a Rannafast Cup winner on Saturday against St Michael’s Enniskillen, was joined on the score-board by two other Rannafast heroes, Aaron McManus and Oisin Brady, and they will renew rivalry now with Enniskillen in January for a place in the MacRory Cup quarter-finals.

St Patrick’s Armagh: B Toal 2-0, M Conory 1-2, J Kieran 1-2, M McGleenan 1-1, D Horsfield 1-0, S Muldoon 0-3, J McCoy 0-1

Abbey CBS: L Forde 1-0, R McCormick 0-5, C Gorman 0-2, J McGoran 0-2, E Carr 0-1, B Campbell 0-1, J Lynch 0-1, J Martin 0-1, A Laverty 0-1

St Patrick’s, Cavan: J Treanor 1-2, C McGovern 1-1, R Curran 0-3, T Smith 0-3f, C Boylan 0-1, A McManus 0-1, O Brady 0-1.

St Mary’s: E McMenamin 1-1, D McEnhill 0-3f

Danske Bank Corn na nÓg semi-final

St Patrick’s, Maghera 3-13 Omagh CBS 2-12

OMAGH CBS had a strongly-tipped St Patrick’s, Maghera on the rack towards the end of this excellent Danske Bank Corn na nÓg semi-final at Cookstown’s Mid Ulster Arena yesterday – but somehow Maghera hit back to reach next week’s final with St Patrick’s, Cavan.

Maghera were the better team in the opening half, and although Sean O’Donnell answered a seventh minute goal from Setanta McLaughlin with Omagh’s goal, it was the south Derry school that looked comfortable with a 1-9 to 1-5 lead at the break.

That was to change dramatically in the 20 minutes after half time as Conor McGillian hit 1-3 early and Omagh went into a 2-11 to 1-10 lead with 10 minutes left.

Two Jody McDermott frees and a point from Cathal Chambers took the lead back to a single point before Michael Mulholland put Maghera back in front with a goal.

Over the next five minutes, Jared Brogan scored a point from play for Omagh, but they missed a 14-metre free and hit both the cross-bar and upright.

To add insult to injury they then had to watch in agony as Maghera broke in injury time with Cathal Chambers racing clear to bury the ball in the corner of the net and claim a spot in the final.

St Patrick’s, Maghera: M Mulholland 1-4, C Chambers 1-2, S McLaughlin 1-1, J McDermott 0-6

Omagh CBS: C McGillian 1-4, S O’Donnell 1-3, C Bradley 0-4, J Brogan 0-1