Armagh Senior Football Championship quarter-final: Armagh Harps 0-22 Killeavy 1-9
Harps turned on the heat in the second-half of this enjoyable quarter-final clash to run out convincing winners and now meet Ballymacnab in this weekend’s semi-final.
Full-forward Gareth Swift weighed in with 0-12 including nine dead ball strikes.
The city side looking every inch serious championship contenders had also key performer in midfielders Charlie Vernon and Declan McKenna, who kept powering through the heart of the St Monnina’s defence, at times with unbelievable ease.
The stylish Mc Kenna also hit 0-4 from play.
Killeavy looked really up for it when Michael McNamee crashed through for a seventh-minute goal and they still held a slender 1-4 to 0-6 advantage when Conor King knocked over an 18th minute minor.
The sides were level four times in an evenly-contested opening half which ended 0-11 to 1-5 but just before the break Harps got their act together with three unanswered points from Ryan McShane, Conor Murphy and Swift and never looked back.
Killeavy could have suffered a heavier defeat but for their goalkeeper Sean O’Hanlon, who saved point blank from Mc Shane on 19 minutes and again from Vernon late in the game at Ballymacnab.
The Harps controlled the second period outscoring their opponents 0-11 to 0-4 and things were already looking bleak for the south Armagh men when three more Swift points made the difference 0-14 to 1-6 just seven minutes after the restart.
Two well-struck Gerard Byrne frees reduced the deficit to five but the outcome was never in doubt.
Harps oozed with confidence in the final quarter and two exquisite Mc Shane scores within as many minutes had them ten clear.
Target-man Swift, who opened Harps account with two points, rounded off a highly-impressive team performance with three more.
Harps scorers: G Swift (0-12, 0-9 frees), D McKenna (0-4), R McShane (0-3), C Vernon (0-1), C White (0-1), C Murphy (0-1).
Killeavy scorers: M McNamee (1-0), C McConville (0-2), R Taggart (0-2), G Byrne (0-2, frees). C O’Hanlon (0-1 free), B McKevitt (0-1, free), C King (0-1).
