Football

St Macartan's set up crunch semi-final clash with Donaghmoyne

Ulster Senior Club Championship quarter-finals

ULSTER champions St Macartan's set up a mouth-watering semi-final with 10 times winners Donaghmoyne, a repeat of last year’s decider, after both sides came through Sunday’s quarter-finals.

Monaghan champions Donaghmoyne, who lost their title to St Macartans last year, after they eased past St Pauls 5-16 to 1-6. Captain Cora Courtney led by example scoring four of her side’s five goals with Sandra McConell weighing in with the other as seven different players got the scoreboard.

After the first quarter, just three points separated the sides, Donaghmoyne edging it 1-5 to 1-2, Saoirse Tennyson getting the game’s opening goal for St Pauls, but a strong second quarter saw the home side push on to outscore their opponents 2-4 to 0-2 as they led 3-9 to 1-4 at the break, Courtney with all three of Donaghmoyne’s first half majors.

St Pauls could only muster a point in the third quarter by which stage Donaghmoyne led 4-13 to 1-5 as they eased to a 22 point victory, Sandra McConnell grabbing Donaghmoyne’s fifth goal. Her sister Cathriona finished with 0-5 and Amy Garland and Louise Kerley both scored four points.

St Macartans impressed in their 3-12 to 0-10 win over Carrickcruppen in Clogher on Sunday and on that 11 points winning margin they will not be beaten easily.

Corner forward Cathy Maguire starred hitting 3-4 but overall this was a good team performance and they had their match-ups and homework done on the Carrickcruppen threats, namely Caroline O’Hanlon.

Playing against a stiff wind in the first half, Maguire’s two majors in the first five minutes laid the foundations for this victory for Ryan McMenamin’s side. They might have scored one time less than their Armagh counterparts but it was the goals that helped them to a 2-6 and 0-9 lead and they were able to push on after the resumption.

O’Hanlon in fact opened the scoring with a point from a free for the visitors, but St Macartans captain Joline Donnelly quickly canceled that out and soon after Maguire had the ball in the back of the net and from there they never looked back. Carrickcruppen goalkeeper Anna Carr was lifting the ball out from the nets again for the second time in the first five minutes when Maguire struck home her side’s second goal. It could have been much worse for Carrickcruppen on the quarter hour mark but Carr saved Maguire’s shot from the penalty spot and Caoimhe Murray and O’Hanlon (free) points reduced the deficit back to 2-1 to 0-4. They did finish the half strongest, with three unanswered points from captain Megan Cinnamond (two) and Sinead Finnegan to leave the gap at half-time down to two but against the wind in the second half they struggled for periods, particularly in the opening 10 minutes, to get out of their own half. An O’Hanlon point (free) was the only score they could muster for the entire half as they failed to turn their possession into scores while St Macartans kept their side of the scoreboard ticking over. Maguire completed her hat-trick in the 45th minute while Carrickcruppen’s woes were compounded when an O’Hanlon penalty was saved by Niamh McKenna and they finished the game with 13 players when in the last few minutes O’Hanlon was sin-binned and Marian McGuinness saw red.

Down champions Bredagh will face their Donegal counterparts Glenfin in the other semi-final later this month after the Tir Chonail side defeated Lurgan 5-12 to 0-10 on Sunday.

Bredagh had a bye to the semi-finals and will have kept a close eye on this one that saw Yvonne Bonner, who showed no signs of jetlag after returning from Australia on Friday after signing an AFL Womens rookie contract with Great Western Sydney Giants, to hit 2-4.

She replaced team-mate Karen Guthrie on the starting line-up and within the first seven minutes haf found the back of the net. Lurgan were rocked by Glenfin’s thundering start as they hit three goals in those first eight minutes, two within the space of minute. The equally impressive Katy Herron got the ball rolling after the first minute when she fired home while Bonner got Glenfin’s second coming on to a pass from Katie Long before she turned provider for Gemma Glackin less than a minute later to put her side well in control.

They followed up with points from captain Houston, Bonner, Lauren Martin and Herron to go in at the break 3-5 to 0-4 ahead.

It was all one way traffic after the resumption with Herron’s goal making it 4-9 to 0-9 and Bonner added a fifth six minutes from time to seal that semi-final spot.

Results

Ulster Senior Club Championship quarter-finals: Donaghmoyne (Monaghan) 5-16 St Pauls (Antrim) 1-6, St Macartans (Tyrone) 3-12 Carrickcruppen (Armagh) 0-10, Glenfin (Donegal) 5-12 Lurgan (Cavan) 0-10, Bredagh (Down) BYE

Ulster Intermediate Club Championship quarter-final: St Brigids (Antrim) 0-13 Kinawley (Fermanagh) 4-9, Emmet Og (Monaghan) 4-11 v Saval (Down) 0-11, Donaghmore (Tyrone) 2-7 Ballinascreen (Derry) 1-7

Ulster Junior Club Championship quarter-finals: Derrygonnelly (Fermanagh) 1-5 Trillick (Tyrone) 6-15, Fanad (Donegal) 1-10 Scotstown (Monaghan) 0-14 (AET), Lavey (Cavan 1-9 St Pauls II (Antrim) 1-4, Faughanvale (Derry) 2-13 v Dundrum (Down) 3-7