Hurling & Camogie

County stars keep Loughgiel on track with win over Ballycastle

County star Roisin McCormick scored 0-4 in Loughgiel's win over Ballycastle in the Antrim Senior Camogie Championship 		Picture: Seamus Loughran
County star Roisin McCormick scored 0-4 in Loughgiel's win over Ballycastle in the Antrim Senior Camogie Championship Picture: Seamus Loughran County star Roisin McCormick scored 0-4 in Loughgiel's win over Ballycastle in the Antrim Senior Camogie Championship Picture: Seamus Loughran

Antrim Senior camogie championship round two: Loughgiel 1-11 Ballycastle 0-10; Dunloy 4-18 Cushendall 2-7

LOUGHGIEL and Dunloy again picked up the victories in the second round of the Antrim senior championship round robin games to move clear of the pack.

It all seemed effortless in Ballycastle as the eight in-a-row-chasing Shamrocks raced into a 1-4 to 0-1 lead at the first water-break with county stars Caitrín Dobbin (1-2) and Róisín McCormick (0-2) doing the damage and just a Caoimhe Wright point in reply.

In fact Wright was the only Ballycastle scorer in the first half while Dobbin, McCormick and Annie Lynn kept Loughgiel six ahead at the interval, 1-7 to 0-4.

Although Emma McMullan pointed on the restart, Loughgiel only scored three more points in the remaining 32 minutes while Ballycastle gradually closed the gap. But they couldn’t get it down lower than four points and the Shamrocks go into this evening’s third round against Cushendall unbeaten.

Dunloy are also unbeaten and everything looked routine as they led at the interval by 2-15 to 1-2. They had posted 1-10 before Brogan Abram opened Cushendall’s account after 21 minutes with a point and then added another 1-5 in the remaining nine minutes of the half.

Caitlin Crawford scored the first goal when she took a pass from Cassie McArthur to give Sarah Kane no chance from close range. The second goal came from the lively Eimear Johnston after 25 minutes when she cut in and slipped the ball to the net off the far post.

Cushendall, however, ended the half strongly with a point from Siobhán McKillop and then a late goal from Ellen Leech. But overall they were being outplayed with the home side finishing good approach work with a flurry of fine points from McArthur, Aileen McManus, Nicole O’Neill, Katie Laverty and Caitlin Crawford.

Áine Magill entered the game as a half-time substitute and she quickly added a goal for Dunloy while Nicole O’Neill popped over four second half points. Although Brogan Abram found the net from a free, Áine Magill burst through for a second goal five minutes from time.

A comfortable enough win for Dunloy – but it came at a price as county defender Chloe Drain picked up a straight red card midway through the second half and is set to miss the final two games of the series – against Loughgiel and Tír na nÓg.

SCORERS

Loughgiel: C Dobbin (1-4), R McCormick (0-4), A Lynn (0-1), E McMullan (0-1), L McNaughton (0-1).

Ballycastle: C Wright (0-6), M Kelly (0-3), N Devlin (0-1).

Dunloy: Á Magill (2-0), C Crawford (1-2), E Johnston (1-1), N O’Neill (0-8, 0-4 frees), C McArthur (0-3), K Laverty (0-2), A McManus (0-2), E Elliot (0-1).

Cushendall: B Abram (1-4, 1-3 frees), E Leech (1-0), S McKillop (0-2), L McMullan (0-1).