Historic St.Joseph’s Win D’Alton Cup

Friday 27.03.2026

St.Joseph’s Donaghmore 3-17 St.Louis Ballymena 2-14

St.Joseph’s Donaghmore are celebrating and rightly so after they created history at St.Malachy’s GAC in Castledawson on Friday afternoon when winning the School’s first ever grade A competition.

 

It was a fabulous game of football against a St.Louis Ballyamena side, who like their opponents, were appearing in their first top tier decider. The Antrim lads had the wind at their backs in the first half and they made it count, establishing a commanding 1-10 to 0-3 lead. Team Captain Conan McKeever was superb in midfield contributing 0-4, including a two pointer, with Ronan Laverty and Kiran Jayaprakash among the points and Cahan O’Kane scoring a well taken goal. Ruan Kavanagh had opened St.Joseph’s account with lively corner forward Daniel O’Neill getting a brace.

 

The second half proved to be a different story with Roan Ogle thumping in a 36^th minute goal and Lorcan Barr also raising a green flag two minutes later. St.Joseph’s now had their tails up but they had keeper Conan Kelly to thank for a marvellous save from Laverty when tipping the ball over the bar.

 

Confusion then reigned when the scoreboard was wrong and despite points from O’Neill and Barr the Tyrone lads trailed by three when it should have been two. St.Louis looked like holding on but Barr had other ideas as he smashed the ball to the net again in injury time to force extra time, although it should have been a winning score.

 

Despite playing against the wind, points from Kavanagh and O’Neill saw them turnaround two points to the good and they never looked back. A brilliant brace from Conal Bonner pushed them further in front and even though Oisin Martin found the net for St.Louis it was the winners who closed out the game with scores from Naoise Woods, Kavanagh and O’Neill.

 

 

St.Joseph’s Donaghmore scorers: L Barr 2-4 (2f), D O’Neill 0-5, C Bonner 0-3, R Kavannagh 0-3, R Ogle 1-0, T Haughey 0-1, N Woods 0-1

 

St.Louis Ballymena scorers: C McKeever 0-5 (1 x tp, 1f), C O’Kane 1-1, O Martin 1-1, R Laverty 0-3, K Jayaprakash 0-2, C McGuckian 0-1, O Anyalechi 0-1