Big Two Through To Senior Hurling Final

Sunday 20.08.2017

Club

Tyrone Senior Hurling Championship

‘Big two’ advance following contrasting semi final victories

The ‘big two’ dominance of the Tyrone Senior Hurling Championship continued after contrasting semi final victories for defending champions Carrickmore Eire Og’s and Dungannon Eoghan Ruadh.

The Eire Og’s brushed aside the feeble challenge of Killyclogher earlier in the week, when they hit the senior newcomers for nine goals. Aidan Kelly supplied five of those in a man of the match display as Carrickmore clicked into gear with Dermot Begley (two), Tony Hughes and Liam Armstrong bagging the other majors for Declan McKillop’s charges.

Meanwhile, at Derrytresk last night (Saturday), Dungannon overcame the stubborn challenge presented by East Tyrone rivals Naomh Colum Cille to earn a crack at their fiercest of adversaries on Sunday 10th September.

Duibhir Marshall (two) and Damian Casey hit the goals in a 3-19 to 2-11 success for the Ruadh side who despite leading from start to finish were forced to answer plenty of questions from a spirited Cille’s side.

Marshall, Casey and midfielder Martin Devlin registered points as Dungannon eased into a comfortable 7-1 lead. Mike O’Gorman responded with the Cille’s only score during that one sided opening period and, while Peter Corr produced an exceptional block to deny Marshall an early goal, the young corner forward did eventually find the net on 16 minutes following a great pass from Lorcan Devlin.

That established a 1-7 to 0-1 advantage, but just when the floodgates were threatening to burst open NCC replied with a badly needed goal of their own. Rory O’Neill steering in from close range after Dungannon failed to deal with O’Gorman’s long range free that had dropped short of the intended target.

Marshall bagged a second goal on 26 minutes when he was perfectly placed to apply the finish when Martin Devlin’s thunderous shot was heroically charged down. Casey and Piaras McErlean added Ruadh points in response to efforts from O’Hagan and O’Gorman as they turned around enjoying a deserving 2-11 to 1-6 interval lead.

In the second half Peter Corr, O’Gorman and O’Hagan continued to battle for NCC but they struggled to contain Dungannon’s superior strength throughout the field. Casey brought his tally to 1-11 and, while NCC replied with a quality goal from Vincent McCann it was Ruadh men who advanced to next month’s decider.

The only blemish on an otherwise impressive showing from Dungannon was the straight red card of Cormac McHugh in injury time.