Patrician take Loch an Iúir title

Danske Bank Corn Loch an Iúir final

Patrician High Carrickmacross 0-12 St Eunan’s Letterkenny 1-5

Patrician High Carrickmacross pulled away near the end of this exciting Dankse Bank Loch an Iúir final in Garvaghey yesterday to claim their first title at this level in over a decade.

Playing with Garreth Burns as a sweeper they shut off St Eunan’s Letterkenny’s route to goal time and again and were able to break effectively and keep the score-board ticking over.

Harry Corscadden and Darragh Flanagan were other towers of strength in defence while up front Liam McDonald was always a threat with his positional play and accuracy.

St Eunan’s also had impressive players in Noel O’Donnell, Jack Gallagher and Oran Brogan, but they found it difficult to get inside the Patrician cover to pick off scores.

The first half was evenly enough contested although St Eunan’s depended on Callum Friel frees for both their scores while McDonald (2) and Greg Finnegan scored for Patrician in making it 0-3 to 0-2 after 23 minutes of play.

Then came a good passage of play from the Donegal side with the ball worked through for Shane Monaghan to shoot to the net.

However Patrician didn’t allow them to build on that score and finished the half strongly with points from McDonald and wing half back Jack McMenamin for an interval shoreline of 0-5 to 1-2.

St Eunan’s started the second half well with points from Jack Roarty and Noel O’Donnell, but Patrician’s ability to break at speed helped them to a flurry of points from McDonald, Darragh Povall and another defender Jack Marron and they opened up a 0-11 to 1-4 lead.

Although Friel came back with a pointed free, St Eunan’s couldn’t add more to their total and, close to the end, Burns won possession inside his own 20 metre line. The ball was swiftly moved up the field for Callum Quigley to tap over an insurance point for the Monaghan side and kill off any lingering doubt there may have been about the result.

Patrician : D Maher, H Daugulis, D Flannagan, H Corscadden, J McMenamin 0-1, N McCaul, D Marron 0-1, C Quigley 0-1, T Sheerin, J Slavin, C Sheehy, G Burns, L McDonald 0-6, 0-4 frees, D Povall 0-2, G Finnegan 0-1.

St. Eunan’s : K Gribben, S Collum, J Gallagher, O McDaid, C McMonagle, O Brogan capt., C McDermott, N O’Donnell 0-1, K Collier, S Monaghan 1-0, J Roarty 0-1, M Whoriskey, C Friel 0-3 frees, E O’Boyle, J Alcorn.

Subs : B Gallagher for M Whoriskey (50), S Breslin for E O’Boyle (52).

Referee : Michael McCarroll