St Killian’s win MacNamee derby final
Danske Bank MacNamee Cup final
St Killian’s Garron Tower 6-6 St Louis Ballymena 2-7
St Killian’s, appearing in their third successive final, hit the ground running with goals from Joseph McLaughlin and Orrin O’Connor in the opening three minutes and powered their way to a second Danske Bank MacNamee Cup win at the weekend in Quinn Park Ballymena.
The scoring power of the St Killian’s full-forward line had a big influence on the outcome of with John V Morgan grabbing three goals to add to the five he hammered home in the semi-final and corner men McLaughlin and O’Connor sharing the other three.
The McSparran twins, Joe McNaughton, Patrick McIlwaine and Frankie McCormick were others to catch the eye while St Louis defender Odhran McGarry, Kevin O’Boyle, Jack McCloskey and the highly skilful Ronan McCollum were also stars in a great game of under-age hurling.
John V Morgan hit his first goal in the 12th minute and Brogan O’Connor tagged on a point to put the Tower 3-2 to 0-2 ahead, before a third point from Ronan McCollum revived St Louis and aided by a goal from Jack McCloskey, they narrowed the gap to four points by the interval.
However St Killian’s put the game out of their reach in the opening minutes of the second half; Joe McNaughton fired over a point from play, John V Morgan grabbed his second goal followed by a McNaughton point and then another Morgan goal. McNaughton split the posts again to put his side 5-6 to 1-5 up and coasting.
Odhran McGarry hit back near the end with a goal and a point from frees but Joseph McLaughlin closed the game out with a superb strike at the death.
St Killian’s : P Ward, C Devlin, F McCormick 0-1, C Graham, M Black, M McSparran capt, K McNaughton, P McIlwaine, A McSparran, B O’Connor, J McNaughton 0-4, C McKeown 0-1, O O’Connor 1-0, JV Morgan 3-0, J McLaughlin 2-0
Subs : O Woodhouse for O O’Connor.
St Louis : C McQuillan, N McIlhatton, M Traynor, T McCann, C Gormley, O McGarry 1-1, P Martin, O McCamphill, K O’Boyle 0-1, D Patterson, R McCollam 0-5, T McFerran, D Martin, J McCloskey 1-0, C Duffin.
Referee : V Boyle (Dunloy)
Thanks to John Curly McIlwaine & Sean Paul McKillop for the pictures
