St.Ciaran’s Lose Out In Thriller

Tuesday 11.02.2014

Club

St.Ciaran’s Ballygawley 4-9 St.Colman’s Newry 2-17
St.Colman’s justified their favourites tag in this Danske Bank MacRory Cup playoff at Inniskeen on Monday night but St.Ciaran’s Ballygawley pushed them all the way in a gripping encounter that went right to the wire.

The game opened at a lively tempo with the two sides sharing the opening four points with Christopher Morris and Pearse Og McCrickard on target for their respective teams. Gradually though the Tyrone school began to get on top with full forward Mark Kavanagh causing all sorts of problems.

He hit a point from play as well as one from a free while Pauric McAnenly weighed in with a beauty with the outside of his boot for a 0-5 to 0-2 advantage. St.Colmans were on the rack but they produced a blistering response with points from Oisin O’Neill, Haughey and a Conor Gilmore brace to lead by two. That’s when Mark McConnell banged in a goal and the sides were level at the break.

The second half was end to end and when the superb Haughey and McCrickard scored goals within three minutes of each other it looked all over. Credit to the Tyrone lads who hit with points from Kavanagh and McConnell as well as a palmed McAnenly goal.

With time almost up Kavanagh won a twenty metre free and he took it quickly straight to the net to put St.Ciaran’s in front. The Newry lads refused to panic though and a Haughey free levelled matters before the same player hit another brace to give them victory.

Scorers – St.Ciaran’s Ballygawley: M Kavanagh 1-5 (3f), P McAnenly 2-1, M McConnell 1-1, C Morris 0-1, J McGlone 0-1 [1f]

St.Colman’s Newry: J Haughey 1-9 (4f), P McCrickard 1-3, P O’Hagan 0-2, C Gilmore 0-2, O O’Neill 0-1

St.Ciaran’s Ballygawley – C McAnenly; C Shields, C Boyle, N Breen; N Kelly, C Morris, B McSorley; R O’Neill, E McGarrity; C Monaghan, M McConnell, R McAnespie; P McAnenly, M Kavanagh, J McGlone. Subs: S Mulgrew for Monaghan, J Woods for Mulgrew, C Kelly for Morris, C Morris for McAnenly, S Mulgrew for McGarrity

St.Colman’s Newry – J Heaney; J Brown, O Donnelly, C Gordon; P O’Hagan, R McQuaid, L McGreevy; F Aiken, O O’Neill; P McCrickard, J Haughey, J Morgan; C Gilmore, P Keating, B Doyle. Subs: S Hanna for Gilmore, C Brown for Keating, G McElroy for Aiken

Referee – M McNally, Monaghan