MacNamee will rest in North Antrim
Danske Bank MacNamee Cup
Semi-final : St Killian’s Garron Tower 7-10 St Patrick’s Maghera 3-0
Quarter-final : Cross & Passion Ballycastle 5-5 St Mary’s CBGS Belfast 2-2
The final scoreline from this repeat of the past two finals, which was shared one each, may suggest a lot different but this Danske Bank MacNamee Cup semi-final in Ahoghill between St Killian’s Garron Tower and St Patrick’s Maghera was well-contested.
The real difference between the teams was that St Killian’s were clinical in front of goal and as the game wore on, Maghera pulled more players back to counteract that threat.
John V Morgan had three goals to his name inside the opening 11 minutes, while Maghera’s Eamon Cassidy also recorded a goal in the fourth minute.
Morgan had added a fourth major before Conlon O’Kane drilled home a second Maghera goal in the 22nd minute with St Killian’s going on to hold a healthy 4-7 to 2-0 lead at the break.
They had only added three more points by the time Niall Barton grabbed a third Maghera goal. But Garron Tower responded with goals from Aidan McSparron, Oisin Woodhouse and once more from John V Morgan to comfortably reach next weekend’s final.
It will be a derby final after Cross & Passion Ballycastle won their delayed quarter-final with St Mary’s Belfast by 5-5 to 2-2 yesterday in Ballymena to set up Monday’s semi-final with St Louis Ballymena.
Cross & Passion took an early 2-1 to 0-0 lead with goals from Liam Walker and Daragh Kelly and looked very dominant before St Mary’s came back strongly with goals from Paul Donnelly and Rhys Colin to trail 2-2 to 2-0 at half-time.
However when Cross and Passion regained the upper hand at the start of the second half, they posted 2-4 without reply to make sure there was no way back for their opponents who could only manage a point from Paul Donnelly before Conor McGarry completed the scoring with Ballycastle’s fifth goal.
St Killian’s : John V Morgan 5-0, Aidan McSparron 1-1, Oisin Woodhouse 1-0, Joe McNaughton 0-4 frees, Cormac McKeown 0-3, Padraig McIlwaine 0-1, Orrin O’Connor 0-1.
St Patrick’s : Eamon Cassidy 1-0, Conlon O’Kane 1-0, Niall Barton 1-0.
Cross and Passion : Oran Donnelly 1-3, Liam Walker 1-0, Daragh Kelly 1-0, Conor McGarry 1-0, Conal Magee 0-1, Conal Elliott 0-1.
St Mary’s : Paul Donnelly 1-2, Rys Colin 1-0.
