The Elk Derry senior camogie championship quarter-finals: Ballinascreen 1-16 Bellaghy 1-7; Lavey 3-13 Eoghan Rua 0-9
THE scoreboard in Ballinderry at the end of the each of the games in The Elk Derry senior camogie quarter-finals double-header on Saturday afternoon suggests comfortable passages for Ballinascreen and Lavey to meet Swatragh and Slaughtneil respecitively in the semi-finals.
However, both winners struggled to contain their challengers before the interval.
The opening half of the Bellaghy and Ballinascreen game was very tight and each side scored four times from frees in the production of a 1-4 each half-time draw. Áine McAlister hit 1-3 from frees although her goal in the 19th minute may well have been finished to the net by Bronagh McGillian. McGillian was the only other ‘Screen scorer with a point in the 25th minute.
Orlaith Hull and Rachel Downey each landed two frees before Anna Cassidy placed Hull for a beautiful finish to the roof of the net in the 29th minute.
After 10 minutes of the second half, Ballinscreen had edged ahead 1-7 to 1-6, but a run of five points in four minutes pulled them clear and Bellaghy didn’t score again until Bronagh Heaveron split the posts in injury time.
Eimhear McGuigan grabbed a couple of those scores but Áine McAlister’s free-taking was impeccable, the county stalwart landing all 1-9 of her total from placed balls.
Aoife Shaw was equally impressive from the dead-ball in the second game, although she didn’t get quite as many chances as McAlister. Her four points in the opening half were key to keeping her team in touch against an Eoghan Rua side that opened impressively and were three points up after five minutes through Gráinne Holmes.
The Coleraine outfit continued to set the pace and, even though Lavey pulled it back to 0-5 each after 19 minutes, two quite brilliant strikes from Kayleigh Colgan and Méabh Duffy opened a two points lead that Coleraine held until first half injury time when Aoife Shaw’s shot was blocked and fell nicely for Niamh Gribbin to slot home. That gave her side an interval lead of 1-6 to 0-8 that they barely deserved.
Teenager Carla Collins put the game beyond the Bannsiders in the 12 minutes after the break. She slotted three points and then took a defence-splitting pass from sub Attracta Bennet to fire home a goal in the 42nd minute.
From then until the end Lavey dominated play, as both teams were guilty of wayward shooting. Veteran Bennet emphasised the change her introduction made at half-time by finishing with a goal and a point and she has to be in with a chance of making the starting team against Slaughtneil at the end of the month.
Ballinascreen scorers: Á McAlister (1-9 frees), E McGuigan (0-2), M Hegarty (0-1), C Rafferty (0-1), R McAlister (0-1), B McGillion (0-1), C McBride (0-1)
Bellaghy scorers; Ó Hull (1-3, 0-3 frees), R Downey (0-3 frees), B Heavron (0-1)
Lavey scorers: C Collins (1-3), A Shaw (0-6, 0-5 frees), A Bennet (1-1), N Gribbin (1-0), A McMullan (0-1), M Rafferty (0-1), Á Murphy (0-1)
Eoghan Rua: G Holmes (0-5, 0-4 frees), M Duffy (0-1), R McAleese (0-1 free), C Holly (0-1), K Colgan (0-1)
