Allianz (Corn Gobnait) All-Ireland Junior A Championship semi-finals
Presentation, Athenry 3-8 Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig 3-10
St Patrick’s, Maghera 1-12 Loreto, Kilkenny 1-5
A NEW name will go on Corn Gobnait this year after wins for St Patrick’s, Maghera and Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig in yesterday’s semi-finals.
The big shock was in Swatragh where St Patrick’s avenged defeat in last year’s decider by 11-times champions Loreto. The Derry school got off to the perfect start with a goal from Orlaith Johnston in the first minute and were never headed during the game.
They took a 1-3 to 0-1 lead after 11 minutes before hitting a scoreless patch that lasted 15 minutes. During that period Loreto hit back with two pointed frees from Shannon Doheny and then, in the 25th minute, a 45 from the same player was deflected to the Maghera net.
The teams were on level terms for just 60 seconds, however, as points from Mary Therese McCullagh and an Emma Quinn free put Maghera in at the break with a 1-5 to 1-3 lead.
Maghera stretched their lead before the 40th minute with three points, all from Quinn frees. Then similar to the first half there was a lull in scoring before they picked up the baton once more with four unanswered points in the last quarter – two Quinn frees and one each from Róisín McAtamney and Aoibh Mulholland.
Loreto’s only scores of the half came in injury-time, both from Muireann Kenny.
Meanwhile in Craughwell, despite two goals from full-forward Molly Noone, Presentation Athenry lost to Coláiste Choilm Ballincollig who have reached the final for the first time.
The damage was done before the break with goals from Sarah Glavin and Leah Hannigan in the first 15 minutes helped the visitors build up an interval lead of 2-6 to 1-3, the Athenry goal scored by Dunne.
Early in the second half, Isobel Whyte closed the gap with a goal, but Hannigan hit the net for the second time in the 44th minute to make it 3-9 to 2-5.
Presentation closed the gap during the last quarter with a second goal from Molly Dunne, but time ran out and Coláiste Choilm were through to the final on Saturday, March 2.
Allianz All-Ireland Junior C Championship semi-final
St Mary’s, Magherafelt 4-10 Heywood CS, Laois 0-5
ST Mary’s, Magherafelt have a second team through to an All-Ireland final. A week ago their senior team reached the Lily Spence Cup final on the last Saturday of February. Yesterday their junior squad hit three goals in the opening 10 minutes in St Patrick’s, Drumcondra against Leinster champions Heywood Community School, but had to play the final 35 minutes with 14 players before they set up a final with Kinsale Community School on March 2.
Magherafelt got off to the perfect start with Eva Forbes’ shot coming off a post and Eimear Chivers sweeping the rebound to the Heywood net in the second minute.
The Ulster champions then tagged on three points over the next five minutes before Ella Rafferty and Sinéad Scullion rattled the in the eighth and ninth minutes.
Heywood, facing into a strong breeze, pulled more players back into defence and that slowed the scoring significantly. The Laois side eventually opened their account in the 17th minute with a free from Eimear Murphy and the same player added two more scores late in the half.
Magherafelt turned around at half-time to face the breeze with a 3-7 to 0-3 lead, but had lost goalscorer Eimear Chivers to a second yellow card.
Nevertheless they opened the scoring through Caoimhe McErlean, her sixth point of the game, and they ground out the result with Laura Scullion and Aoibh Shivers standing tall in defence.
Right at the death Ellen Cullen fired home an excellent goal to top off a fine team performance.
Kinsale Community School travelled to Mountbellew and beat Holy Rosary by 2-5 to 2-3.
Scorers
St Patrick’s E Quinn 0-6f; O Johnston 1-0; R McAtamney & MT McCullagh 0-2 each; A McFaul & A Mulholland 0-1 each
Loreto S Doheny 1-2f; M Kenny 0-2, E Doheny 0-1
St Mary’s C McErlean 0-6 (0-4); E Cullen 1-2; E Chivers, E Rafferty & S Scullion 1-0 each; E Forbes & A Rocks 0-1 each
Heywood E Murphy 0-4 frees, N O’Shea 0-1